


Magic, Metal and Madness

by MistressOfDeath



Series: Frozen to the Marrow [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: BAMF Harry Potter, Female Harry Potter, Gen, Genius Harry Potter, Legilimency, Makeover, Parent Tony Stark, Tony Stark Feels, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark is Good With Kids, daughter harry potter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-28
Updated: 2020-03-03
Packaged: 2021-02-28 03:33:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 21,287
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22937164
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MistressOfDeath/pseuds/MistressOfDeath
Summary: "The Avengers Initiative was scrapped, I thought, and neither of us even qualify. Yeah, apparently we are volatile, self-obsessed, don't play well with others.""Actually she put me in as a, I quote, 'grudge-holding spoiled brat'""That I did know, though the second part ain't true"
Relationships: Harry Potter & Natasha Romanov (Marvel), Harry Potter & Pepper Potts, Pepper Potts/Tony Stark
Series: Frozen to the Marrow [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1648501
Comments: 17
Kudos: 656
Collections: Harry Potter Fanfic Must Reads, Marvel Fanfic Must Reads





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This work was originally posted on ffn by the same name, by the same author, i.e. me

Steve grunted as he punched the boxing bag one last time and it swayed. As it came back, Steve punched it again. He was trying his best to pent up all the frustration that was stored in him for the past 70 years of sleep. He was so focused on punching that he almost missed a beat when he heard one of the boys in the gym let out a huge wolf whistle. Instead, Steve caught it and looked around.

The gym he worked in didn't get many people working in it, but it had about 8-10 people in it, all men, including Steve.

But then he noticed the reason for the wolf-whistle. A beautiful young woman, no older than 20, if he had to guess, entered the gym with her duffel bag on her shoulder. She had pink hair that was braided and wore grey leggings, a black hoodie, and sports shoes. He didn't know that women came here, at all.

"Look who finally decided to drop by" Alex, one of the heavy hitters of the gym chuckled

The girl dropped her duffel near the lockers and laughed. A sweet sound, Steve noticed.

"Sorry Alex. Had important stuff in Malibu"

"for two whole weeks?" Henry, another man who came to the gym asked. Steve didn't really know anyone personally, but he made sure to learn all their names. He was more of a coming-working-leaving kind of guy. After 70 years of being frozen, he didn't feel like socializing with people.

"Yeah. Job demands" the girl shrugged "So, who's up for today?"

Alex beamed "Get in here, flower petal"

The girl chuckled and to his shock and surprise, she unzipped her hoodie and threw it over her duffel bag.

Steve so wanted to remove her eyes off of her, but couldn't. The girl was technically a goddess. She was way too beautiful, had a perfect body that would have men falling like dominoes for her. And by the way, she walked, it seemed she had the air of confidence and self-esteem wrap her around like an aura.

Steve slowly felt his cheeks warm up. What the hell he was doing? Sure women didn't show off that much in the '40s, and that had changed a hell lot, it didn't mean that Steve will ogle any woman who did that too. Where were his morals?

Flushed and embarrassed, Steve slightly cleared his throat and went back to punching the bag. His only job here was to beat the hell out of the punching bag and go back to the new apartment SHIELD had arranged for him. No more no less. No matter how cute, adorable of beautiful the girl was. The realization only caused him to flush even more.

"If I win, you'll buy me ice cream for a whole week" he heard the woman's voice.

"sure sure" Alex laughed

Steve tried his best but couldn't help. He stopped punching the bag and looked ahead where the woman and Alex were standing in the boxing ring, but they weren't wearing gloves, which confused him.

"So, are we up for MMA?" the woman asked

Alex smirked

Everyone in the gym knew that Alex was the best MMA fighter in the locality. He had people challenging him and getting their ass handed back to them. And it made Steve curious. If grown-up and muscular men couldn't hold it up to a man like Alex-who was all muscle, can a young woman like her?

"Then you are in for a treat" the girl giggled and took a fighting stance, Alex copied and took his own position.

"60 bucks on flower petal!" Someone from the crowd shouted

The woman only laughed

"come on, no money on me?" Alex asked, but didn't sound much sincere

But no reply came, which only made the woman laugh more

"guess it's decided then, huh?"

"Don't be so sure" Alex chuckled and went for an attack.

Steve had to admit. That woman was a fighter. She used her disadvantages to her advantage. Her lack of muscle and size was pretty much made up by her quick reflexes and agility.

And that shocked Steve. From where he came from, women were not this open, ever. They sure didn't were lingerie to the gym, but that also never fought like that. Women were supposed to be more sublime and polite, but this woman clearly defied all the rules.

Quite ironic for a girl who was called flower petal

The match ended with Alex being dumped on the ground with a sack of flour and the woman pressing her knee on his back and holding his head in a headlock.

Alex reached and tapped the ground a couple of times and the woman released him. She stood up, panting and extended a hand towards Alex, who excitedly took it and stood up. Both of them were catching their breaths and were covered in sweat

"It was awesome" he grinned, as if he wasn't just beaten down by a woman half of his size

"Yeah, it was" she chuckled and then yelped as Alex pulled her into a quick hug

She pulled back after a while "I'm hitting the showers." And then she exited the ring, picked her duffel and entered the showers.

Steve noticed perispherically a few guys handing over bills to who placed the bet

"She's a masterpiece, huh" someone chuckled

Steve turned next to him and noticed Mike, another man who was great at boxing

When Steve didn't reply, Mike looked at him

"Look, no offense kid, but I saw the way you looked at her," he said

Steve almost found it ironic that Mike, a man in his late forties, called him kid when he technically was Mike's grandpa's age

"what's that supposed to mean?" Steve asked

Mike chuckled

"The girl's a spitfire, Steve. And you don't play with fire. Unless you want to get burned" Mike clapped on his shoulder and left, leaving a very confused Steve in his wake.

* * *

In about 30 minutes, half of the people had left already. Steve was one of the few who stayed behind mostly because he had no hurry to go back. And then he finally noticed the woman-girl, according to Mike, exit the showers in some casual clothing of jeans and shirt, hair up in a bun, duffel on her shoulder

"Ice cream?" Alex asked, still in the boxing ring

"Not today" the woman smiled "Dad called. I've got to get back home now. Next time?"

"You better not pull a disappearing act for the next month or something" Alex laughed

"I try my best to stay grounded" she smiled "See ya later"

"Bye"

The woman started walking out. Then she turned and looked at him and Steve realized that he'd been staring. What was wrong with him? Before he could divert his gaze, the woman smirked and gave him a two-finger salute before she exited.

Steve's cheeks warmed up again. He shook his head when he paused and realized what she had done. She had saluted him. Does it mean that she knew who he was? And if she did, then how?

* * *

Later that night, Steve was sitting in his apartment on the couch. He had been the last to exit that gym after he had an encounter with Fury. Speaking of Fury, Steve glanced at the manila folder that innocently laid on top of his duffel bag. With an internal sigh, he reached and opened it up. The first few pages were about the Tesseract, which he had already read but it was what followed caught his interest. It was the list of people and their info.

First was Anthony 'Tony' Edward Stark-Howard's son -Iron Man. He quickly skimmed through the page and found the words 'Volatile, Self-obsessed and not a team player' highlighted.

And on the right side top was his photo. It looked like Tony wasn't aware of his photo being clicked. Steve almost snorted and flipped the page

Rose Genevieve Stark, Tony Stark's daughter. He looked at the photo. The girl looked around 16-17 with pinup straight black hair. She was fairly beautiful for a girl her age. Even this photo seemed to be taken by a distance without Rose's knowledge. It was her eyes that first caught his attention. They were a brilliant shade of green, anything unlike Tony's. she must have gotten it from her mother, Steve thought.

He started scanning her biodata. It was impressive. Exceptional in hand-to-hand combat. Black belt in Karate and MMA. Apparently she was now the current CEO of the Stark Industries, so another genius in making.

What caught his next attention was her character profile. He raised a brow. She didn't look like anything like she was being described, but you can never judge a book by its cover.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "I don't know what's worse; the Hunger monster or the one which stole the tesseract"  
> -Rose Stark at some point

Rose took a deep breath as she entered her house, duffel bag in hand. She stepped into the elevator and it closed as she pressed the button for the second topmost floor. Her floor.

Exiting, she tossed her duffel bag on the couch and headed to her bedroom

"JARVIS remind me later to have my gym clothes washed up. I'm too tired right now"

"It's been added to your reminders, mam" the AI responded

Rose did a random spin and entered the bathroom and stripping off, slipped into the bathtub for a relaxing bath to help her aching muscles.

* * *

An hour later, Rose stepped onto the topmost floor. She had changed into khaki shorts and a black tank top, and slip-on. Her rose-gold hair was up in a messy bun, few strands loose on her face. She looked at the smoothie in hand, which was now empty and she tossed it into the nearest garbage can, attracting the attention of the other person in the room

"Hey, you are a little late" Pepper smiled, as Rose walked to her

"I came about an hour ago. What can I say? My relationship with warm baths is very comforting" Rose said dramatically, making Pepper chuckle

Rose, smiling, turned her attention to the screen in front of her

"So, Dad is…."

"yup" Pepper nodded "Connecting the grids lines"

Just then another voice came over

_"Good to go on this end. The rest is up to you._ " Tony said,

"You disconnected the transmission lines? Are we off the grid?" Pepper asked

_"Stark Tower's about to become a beacon of self-sustaining clean energy._ " Tony proudly said

"Well, assuming the arc reactor takes over and it actually works." Rose piped in. Pepper snorted but tried to cover it with a cough

_"Good to know you have faith in me, munchkin"_

"And that was exactly why I had rechecked everything before I left. You're welcome, by the way"

_"Tomato-tomahto, Rosie. Light her up."_

Pepper and Rose exchanged a look and Rose pressed a few buttons and soon the tower lit up

"How does it look?" Pepper asked as she looked at the hologram of the completely lit up Stark Tower

_"Like Christmas..._ " Tony said, content in his voice " _...but with more- me."_

"And here I thought we worked on this together" Rose snorted, earning giggles from Pepper. It was never hard to make Pepper laugh. Especially when it was bickering between Tony and Rose. It was always amusing

_"What did she say?"_ Tony asked

"N-Nothing" Pepper replied, giving Rose an amused look "but I was saying that we've got to go wider on the public awareness campaign. You need to do some press."

_"That's what I have Rose for_ " Tony chuckled

"Yeah, no. I promised Fleur and Andy that I'll babysit the kids this week. No can do, sir" Rose answered "And I thought you made this whole thing, right. You should be in front of the press, not me"

Pepper tried very hard not to laugh at the crestfallen look of Tony. To watch him being sassed by Rose was always amazing.

"I'm in DC tomorrow." Pepper continued as if she wasn't interrupted "I'm working on the zoning for the next three buildings."

_"Pepper, you're killing me at the moment. Remember, enjoy the moment._ " Tony whined

"Then get in here and I will." Pepper almost purred

"Should I go around the city for a drive while you both, uhm" she cleared her throat "e-enjoyed the moment?"

_"Why not_ " Tony answered

Rose shrugged and turned around but Pepper stopped her "You know he's kidding, right?"

"Pep, that's Tony Stark. No one has any idea when he's kidding and when he's not. Well, maybe except me. And he's not kidding. So, you both enjoy your moment and maybe I'll go see Draco. He wanted to know how the tower went"

_"You aren't going to see that ferret_ " Tony's voice came over

"And that's exactly why?" Rose asked, a smirk playing on her lips, as she saw him enter through the landing pad

"You are not going to see that ferret and that's final. Because I'm your dad and I said so" Tony added as soon as he saw he open her mouth to retort

"Levels are holding steady- I think." Pepper interrupted the two, looking at the holographic image of the tower and some reports. Rose turned around and checked the reports

"Yup, they are"

Rose turned around as Tony approached the two women. He removed his earpiece and tossed it on the table

"Of course they are, I was directly involved." Tony beamed and stood between the two women "Which leads me to my next question. How does it feel to be a genius?"

Tony turned off the display so Pepper and he could face each other.

"Well, ah, I really wouldn't know now would I?"

"What do you mean? All this came from you." Tony looked at Pepper "And you" he turned to Rose

"No, all this came from that." Rose snorted, walking around and tapping Tony's arc reactor with her nail

"She's right" Pepper nodded with a smile as she turned around

"Give yourself some credit, please. Stark Tower is your baby." Tony looked at them both "Give yourself-" he paused, thinking "twelve percent of the credit. Each"

"Twelve percent?" Both the women asked

" An argument can be made for fifteen." Tony offered as Pepper walked off to the nearest table

"Well, I don't remember you working sleepless nights on how to stabilize arc reactor enough to not have repulsive energy theories" Rose scoffed

"Neither do I. And really? Twelve percent of my and Rose's baby?" Pepper asked, sitting on the couch

"Twelve percent each" TOny corrected

"Twenty-four isn't exactly good either, dad" Rose chucked

" Well, I did do all the heavy lifting." Tony said, walking to Pepper but paused talking hearing a faked cough "Okay. I did the majority of the heavy lifting. Like 60%. Literally, I lifted the heavy things and sorry but, the security snafu?" he turned around and looked at Rose, who was joining them "That was on you."

"Oh?" Rose raised her brow, sitting next to Pepper but opposite to Tony

"My private elevator." Tony started. Pepper paused pouring champagne in the glasses and fixed him a look

"You mean our elevator." Pepper corrected him, pointing fingers between herself and Rose

"Yeah, it was teeming with sweaty workmen." Tony said and took a glass, looking at his women "I'm going to pay for that comment about percentages in some subtle way later aren't I?"

Pepper and Rose exchanged a secret look

"Yup!" Rose chuckled, taking the second glass of champagne while Pepper took the third

"Not gonna be that subtle," Pepper added

"I'll tell you what, next building is gonna say 'Potts' on the tower." Tony offered

"On the lease!" Pepper exclaimed

"And the third one will hav-" Tony looked at Rose, but was interrupted by his AI

"Sir, the telephone. I'm afraid my protocols are being overridden."

"Ah" Tony slightly winced and picked up his phone. Agent Coulson was on the phone

_"Mr. Stark, we need to talk._ "

"You have reached the Life Model Decoy of Tony Stark. Please leave a message." Tony said in a monotone

_" This is urgent._ " Agent Coulson added

"Then leave it urgently," Tony added

The elevator opened and Coulson stood in there with his phone

"Security breach!" Tony cried and looked at Rose "That's on you!"

"Phil! Come in!" Pepper got up and smiled at the agent, walking to him, followed by the other two

"Hi Phil" Rose smiled at him

"Ms. Stark" Coulson nodded

"Phil?" Tony asked

" I can't stay." Phil quickly added

"Uh, his first name is Agent." Tony tried and failed

"Come on in, we're celebrating," Pepper said

"Which is why he can't stay," Tony said with a fake smile

"I thought it was more the merrier" Rose looked at her father with a smirk, who fixed her a frown

Agent Coulson extended a laptop towards Tony "We need you both to look this over, as soon as possible."

Tony stared at the laptop.

"I don't like being handed things." He grumbled

"Moments when I'm glad I'm unlike you" Rose muttered "Here" she extended her glass to Coulson, who took it and she took his laptop

"Official consulting hours are between eight and five every other Thursday," Tony said, looking at the laptop in Rose's hands

"This isn't a consultation," Coulson said. Rose shrugged, turning around and heading for the work table, Tony hesitantly following his daughter

"Is this about the Avengers?" Pepper asked and then quickly realized what she had said, "Which I know nothing about."

"The Avengers Initiative was scrapped, I thought, and neither of us even qualify." Tony piped in, pointing his index finger between himself and Rose, as she worked on the laptop

"I didn't know that either," Pepper said

"Yeah, apparently Rosie and I are volatile, self-obsessed, don't play well with others."

"Actually she put me in as a, I quote, 'grudge-holding spoiled brat'" Rose scoffed

"That I did know." Pepper said "Though the second part ain't true"

" This isn't about personality profiles anymore," Coulson said

"Whatever!" Tony snorted and looked at the laptop screen "Ms. Potts, got a sec?"

"Half a moment," Pepper told him and walked to the father-daughter duo,

"You know, I thought we were having a moment." Tony whispered to her "the three of us celebrating"

"Rose and I were having twelve percent of a moment, each" Pepper said as Rose snorted. Tony gave both the women a look

"This seems serious. Phil looks pretty shaken." Pepper added

"Yeah. I've never seen Phil so…panicked"

"How would you notice- why is he, Phil?" He looked at both Pepper and Rose, just as Rose expended everything on various holographic screens over the room

"Um, guys?" Rose called over her shoulder, as both Tony and Pepper looked at the screens, standing next to Rose

"What is all this?" Pepper asked, resting her arm on Rose's shoulder

" This is-" Tony started

"Avengers Initiative" Rose finished, looking over various footages

"I'm going to take the jet to DC tonight," Pepper muttered, still gaping at the videos

"Tomorrow." Tony almost whined

"You both have homework. A lot of homework."

"Well, what if I didn't?" Tony turned to Pepper

"If you didn't? You mean when you finished? Well, um, then" Pepper leaned in and whispered in Tony's ear.

"Square deal." Tony agreed

"Yeah, you do that" Rose almost gagged "And I'll spend some time with Draco"

Tony gave her an annoyed look

"Fly safe, Pep." Rose smiled at the redhead

Pepper nodded with a smile, giving Rose a hug and Tony a kiss, while Rose turned her back towards them

"Work hard." Pepper kissed Rose on her head and then walked off. Rose, noticing something, expended it and her eyes widened.

She looked over her shoulder at Tony and found him looking at a departing Pepper

"Dad"

Tony jerked his attention to his daughter

"Yeah?"

"Look at this" Rose pointed at a blue cube with Tesseract written under it

* * *

Rose yawned as Tony sat next to her on the couch. It was still quite early in the morning and the two had spent the entire night doing their homework on the shortlisters

"thanks" Rose yawned again as Tony passed her a coffee cup, holding one for himself

"so, are we good?" Tony asked

"Mostly" Rose answered "JARVIS close all the books"

The digital copies of the books disappeared as Rose leaned back on the couch. She removed her glasses and sighed, taking a sip of coffee

"So what's our play?" Tony asked

"Well, you head to the party. I have to make a short trip to London. Looks like my week plans are officially ruined"

"You'll be fine" Tony patted her shoulder as she stood up.

She walked to her room, keeping the empty coffee mug on the table

"Ms. Stark, I have to remind you to have your gym clothes washed up"

"Got it, J," she said, entering the bathroom for a nice hot shower

* * *

After changing into some comfortable clothing, Rose headed for London. She apparated to rural London and just walked to her destination. She smiled seeing the house

"Rose!"

"Hey Andy" Rose smiled at the old woman, who was easily in her nineties but didn't look a day older than 60 "How are you?"

"I'm good, hon. How are you? And your father?"

"I and Dad are just fine. Ted?"

"In his room" Andy smiled

"thanks" Rose smiled "And I didn't forget" she headed and gave the woman a tight hug "You are still beautiful"

"I'm flattered, Rose"

Rose beamed at her and then walked into the house, heading to a familiar room. She quietly opened the door and found a sleeping four-year-old on the bed. It was a customized bed, which she had personally runed so that it would adjust to the demands of its owner. Rose's gift to Teddy for Christmas. She quickly went and sat on the bed next to Teddy's head. She removed her bag and set it on the nearby table

"I know you are awake" she whispered playfully. Teddy giggled, his face burying deeper into the pillow

"No I'm not" he giggled

"Yes you are" she chuckled and pounced at him at once. Soon peals of laughter rang around the house as rose continued to tickle him.

"Mum-Mummy" Teddy squealed, laughing hard "s-sto-stop-stop," he said between the breaths

Hearing a hard chuckle from behind her, Rose stopped. She looked over her shoulder and Teddy raised his upper body

"Hi, Aunty Hermy!"

Hermione laughed a little more as she stepped in. Rose got off of her godson as Hermione sat on the bed

"Thought you were supposed to come next week"

"Change of plans" Rose shrugged

"What's it?"

Rose lurched forward a little, as teddy had pounced at her from the back and wrapped his arms around her neck, keeping his tiny head on her shoulder

"SHIELD contacted me and Dad"

"They got you a mission?"

"Worse. You remember the Tesseract?"

Hermione froze as her eyes widened

"I do" she muttered

"It's been stolen." She sighed

"that means….the other s-"

"Yeah" Rose nodded "But SHIELD is being very zipped up about it. They don't know that I have more info on the tesseract than they do"

"They're underestimating you" Hermione muttered

"That seems a better option. No one has any idea about the Tesseract and what it is really capable of. I think they should be kept in dark on this one."

"You think it is a good idea?"

"It is" Rose nodded "If I told them the truth, it is only going to make them more paranoid. I cannot afford that. And if the word spread around, the magicals are gonna get involved"

"That won't be pretty" Hermione muttered "It'd be all WW2 once again"

Rose nodded

"Promise me you'd be back"

Rose smiled softly

"I'm not leaving this guy" she reached and kissed Teddy's forehead "or anyone else anytime soon"

Hermione smiled and hugged her tight

"Take care. And don't do anything stupid or reckless"

"Yes, mam"

Both the girls chuckled, but then stopped when they heard a low grumble

"What was that?" Hermione asked in a fake scared voice

Rose pretended to think for a minute "Oh no! It's the…it's the…" she played along and then quickly turned to Teddy "It's the hunger monster!"

Teddy squealed as Rose grabbed him by his waist "Come on baby, we need to calm that hunger monster, now!"

* * *

After having lunch with Hermione, Teddy, and Andy, and spending a couple more hours, Rose decided to leave

"I should get going now. Dad is expecting me"

Andy nodded with a smile. Rose gave both the women tight hugs and then left. She quickly took out her phone

"J? Where's dad?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Reviews and kudos are all I live on. Okay, just kidding. Mostly, I live on those two. and creative criticism is welcome. Hate comments, nuh-uh


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "When not being great friends and working together, why do men fight like cats in heat, trying to prove their own superiority? 90% men are stupid and sorry all the effing time."  
> -An exasperated Rose Stark

When Rose apparated there, on top of a rock, she was surprised to see a three-way fight. Iron man, Captain America and the third guy she was having a hard time recognizing. He had long blonde hair, was dressed like some medieval costume and held a hammer

"You want me to put the hammer down?" the third man asked and taking a step back, lunged at captain America, swinging his hammer but then suddenly met an invisible wall. He slid down along the wall and then touched around it. He still couldn't pass through

"I think that's enough!"

All three heads snapped towards her as she stepped down from the rock, slid along a little slope and then walked to the hammer-wielding man

* * *

Steve's eyes widened. It was the girl from the gym! Her pink hair was something Steve could recognize anywhere. But what was she doing here? And why wasn't Stark saying something? Steve was about to say something when the girl turned to the face the blonde Asgardian with a slightly boring look.

"You are?" she asked. The tall blonde man panted, while he checked her out before answering

"Thor Odinson"

She nodded "Good to know" and then looked at the other two heroes "Really? How immature can you three be?"

"I'm sorry?" He asked her, puzzled

"Oh don't be" she waved him off "I mean you do realize while the three of you are having this little fight, Devil with gold horns can easily walk out of here like a walk in the park, right?"

The three men looked at Loki, who was looking at them in amusement

"Men" she muttered to herself. In the end, Steve couldn't help but flush out due to embarrassment.

* * *

At the Helicarrier, Steve made it to their table on the bridge. He still hadn't seen the girl yet and she puzzled him. Who exactly was she?

* * *

While Loki was being escorted to his quarter, aka cage, Tony walked to one of the armories, Rose along with him

"How was it?" he asked, as he put his suit there and closed the door

"Okay. Hermione says she's fine, but she is really worried" she sighed "And I need to make it up to Andy and Fleur for bailing at the last moment"

"I know you will" Tony smiled, bumping his shoulder to her, which made her smile too "So you and Draco…."

"Dad, seriously? You think this is the best place or time to have a conversation like this?"

"Hey, you can blame me for wondering what is going on between you and that ferret?"

"Dad" Rose chided

"What?! He does look like a ferret with that white hair and face structure" Tony shrugged "And didn't that moody teacher of yours turn him into an actual ferret? What was his name again?"

"It was Moody" Rose sighed "You just don't like him because he helped me combine tech and magic"

"No. It's mostly because he makes gooey eyes at you and well your past with him"

"He makes gooey eyes at me because he cares about me. Not the way you think. And we settled our differences" She quickly added, "And can we just stop talking about it and him?"

Tony stopped thinking for a while "We'll have this conversation later"

Rose sighed but didn't say anything as they entered the bridge, Coulson joining them

"I think it's about mechanics. Iridium, what do they need the Iridium for?" she heard a voice asked

"It's a stabilizing agent." Tony declared his presence entering and he turned to Phil, but Rose stopped him with a glare. Tony did a take, but then looked forward

"He was going to say something?" Phil asked Rose, as she stopped near him

"He was going to offer you a trip to Portland. Ignore him, please"

Phil gave her a relieved smile and she nodded back.

"Means the portal won't collapse on itself as it did at SHIELD," Tony added. He then stopped next to Thor and patted his arm

"No hard feelings point break, you got a mean swing."

Thor gave Tony a look as he walked to the control panels.

"Also, it means the portal can open as wide and stay open as long as Loki wants." Tony further explained and entered the command area of the ship, looking around the personnel

"Ah, raise the mizzen mast, ship the topsails."

The personnel looked at him strangely.

"That man is playing Galaga!" Tony pointed at a random man "Thought we wouldn't notice, but we did."

Standing now at the command area of the ship, Tony covered one eye and looked around the panels

"How does Fury even see these?"

"He turns!" one agent, Hill-she remembered from the file, told him sternly

"Sounds exhausting!" Tony complained then turned to address the group at the bridge "The rest of the raw materials, Agent Barton can get his hands on pretty easily. Only major component he still needs is a power source of high energy density. Something to- kick start the Cube."

"When did you become an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics?" Agent Hill asked

"Last night." Tony shrugged

Rose sighed as she pinched her bridge

"You okay?" Phil asked

"I just feel like I'm going to be telling a lot of people to ignore him. Constantly"

Phil chuckled softly

"The packet, Selvig's notes, the extraction theory papers- am I the only one who did the reading?" Tony asked then noticed the look Rose was giving him. A look which pretty much said – 'Stop showing off and focus!'

"Does Loki need any particular kind of power source?" Captain America asked looking at Tony.

"He has to heat the Cube to a hundred and twenty million kelvin just to break through the Coulomb barrier." The man Rose recognized as Dr. Banner said

"That is unless Dr. Selvig has figured out how to stabilize the Quantum Tunneling effect, and getting rid of the residual electromagnetic energy," Rose said, as every eye on the bridge looked at her, especially Dr. Banner. She tucked a strand of rose gold hair behind her ear.

"Well, if he could do that he could achieve heavy-ion fusion at any reactor on the planet." Dr. Banner added

Rose gave him a smile

"Finally." Tony exclaimed, walking to Dr. Banner "Someone who speaks English."

Tony shook hands with him

"It's good to meet you, Doctor Banner. Your work on anti-electronic collisions is unparalleled. And I'm a huge fan of the way you- lose control and turn into an enormous green rage monster."

" ...Thanks." Dr. Banner said with hesitation

"I told you" Rose looked at Phil, who smiled at her

"Doctor Banner is only here to track the Cube. I was hoping you might join him." Fury said, joining them. He had literally appeared out of nowhere. Rose could never understand how a human could wear all black all the time. That was so…wrong.

"Who's she?" Dr. Banner asked, looking at Rose "I'm sorry, but you seem quite familiar"

Before Rose could open her mouth to introduce herself, Fury spoke up

"This is Rose Stark. She'd be lending a hand in this mission too"

She faced Banner "Tony Stark's daughter" she extended her hand and shook it with Banner. She then looked at Fury, for spoiling her introduction and as if daring him to say anything more.

Fury just gave her a stern poker face, which Rose didn't find intimidating at all. If she can face Minerva McGonagall's for seven years, Fury's glare was nothing.

Captain America cleared his throat, drawing both their attention from their glaring contest.

"I'd start with that stick of his. It may be magical but it works an awful lot like a HYDRA weapon."

"I don't know about that, but it is powered by the Cube. And I like to know how Loki used it to turn two of the sharpest men I know into his personal flying monkeys." Fury added

"Monkeys? I do not understand" Thor asked

"I do!" Captain America exclaimed. The entire room went instantly silent, looking at him. He gulped and then softly added "I...I understood that reference."

Rose chuckled. She found him adorable to an extent. Sure it wasn't the first time they'd met, but she'd never seen this side of his.

And when he looked at her, she had to shoot him a grin. The pink tint on Captain's face was so priceless that Rose really had to control her laugh

"Shall we play, Doctor?" Tony asked Dr. Banner

"This way, sir."

And the two of them walked off.

Rose took a seat and took out her laptop from her bag and her glasses as she started working on that

"I didn't know you wore glasses" she heard Agent Romanoff say

"I only wear them when working on screens." She answered and then looked at Fury "I need everything you have on Tesseract." And she looked back at the screen "Since the day Grandpa Howard found it to the most recent experiments you were holding at your secret New Mexico base"

She looked back at fury, who gave her a glare. She shrugged

"Waiting for exactly what?"

And then he walked off.

Rose made a look and turned to Phil "Did I say something offensive?"

Phil chuckled again "He's just like that"

"Wow." She breathed and faced the screen "JARVIS, pull out all my work, can you?"

"Sure, Miss Stark"

Steve and Romanoff got up too and left to make themselves useful, apparently

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Reviews, kudos, subscription, and creative criticism are all that's welcome. Rest can go to hell


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "How are Rose and Tony related to Howard?"  
> -Steve Rogers' internal debate

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 3 but just Steve's POV. Can be totally ignored if you want to not re-read chapter 3 and move on to chapter 5

"It's a stabilizing agent."

Steve looked up at the passage and saw Tony Stark enter. Steve narrowed his eyes at him. For being his once friend's son, Tony was very different.

And then he saw her. The pink-haired girl, along with Coulson. What was she doing here again?

Tony turned around to say something but quickly shut up when the girl shot him a look. Did they know each other? Coulson leaned a little towards the girl and spoke something for which she softly replied, followed by a nod. Steve almost turned off the rest of the things going on at the bridge.

She still looked similar but just had a change of clothes, which made her look even younger. Maybe late teens?

She was wearing a white top, a blue denim jacket, and maroon pants. On her left wrist a set of bangles and bracelets. Steve slightly stretched to get a whole look out of her. She wore heeled boots of... denim? Her pink hair was loose and in curls, reaching past her chest. She looked pretty well off

His attention was brought back as Tony spoke something

"Means the portal won't collapse on itself like it did at SHIELD," Tony added. He then stopped next to Thor and patted his arm

"No hard feelings point break, you got a mean swing."

Thor gave Tony a look as he walked to the control panels.

"Also, it means the portal can open as wide and stay open as long as Loki wants." Tony further explained and entered the command area of the ship, looking around the personnel

"Ah, raise the mizzen mast, ship the topsails."

Everyone looked at him strangely.

"That man is playing Galaga!" Tony pointed at a random man "Thought we wouldn't notice, but we did."

Standing now at the command area of the ship, Tony covered one eye and looked around the panels

"How does Fury even see these?"

"He turns!" Agent Hill snapped

"Sounds exhausting!" Tony complained then turned to address the group at the bridge "The rest of the raw materials, Agent Barton can get his hands on pretty easily. The only major component he still needs is a power source of high energy density. Something to- kick start the Cube."

"When did you become an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics?" Agent Hill asked

"Last night." Tony shrugged

Steve heard a loud sigh and slightly tilted his head to see that the girl was now pinching the bridge of her nose and she looked irritated. Coulson looked at her, probably to ask if she was fine. She turned to face to reply when Steve noticed her green eyes. He knew he had seen them somewhere.

Whatever the girl had replied, Coulson chuckled to it.

"The packet, Selvig's notes, the extraction theory papers- am I the only one who did the reading?" Tony asked. Steve looked back at his friend's son and saw him looking somewhere. Tony was looking at the pink-haired girl. And she was frowning(?) at him. Neither of them seemed eager to stop their glaring, so Steve decided to break the ice and he cleared his throat

"Does Loki need any particular kind of power source?" Captain America asked looking at Tony. He still couldn't help but sneak glances at the girl who was standing at the sidelines. Like earlier in the gym, she had a particular aura on which he couldn't put his finger on. But he did notice that Tony and she exchanged a lot of looks in silence, making him wonder if those two knew each other.

"He has to heat the Cube to a hundred and twenty million kelvin just to break through the Coulomb barrier." Dr. Banner said

"That is unless Dr. Selvig has figured out how to stabilize the Quantum Tunneling effect, and getting rid of the residual electromagnetic energy," The girl said, as every eye on the bridge looked at her, especially Dr. Banner. She tucked a strand of pink hair behind her ear. She spoke science? Steve's curiosity over her identity just increased by ten folds. And then realization hit him. He had seen Rose Stark having the green eyes of the same shade. But wasn't she comparatively younger and had black hair?

"Well, if he could do that he could achieve heavy-ion fusion at any reactor on the planet." Dr. Banner added

She gave him a smile

"Finally." Tony exclaimed, walking to Dr. Banner "Someone who speaks English."

"Is that what happened?" he muttered to himself

Tony shook hands with him

"It's good to meet you, Doctor Banner. Your work on anti-electronic collisions is unparalleled. And I'm a huge fan of the way you- lose control and turn into an enormous green rage monster."

" ...Thanks." Dr. Banner said with hesitation

Rose looked at Coulson and they exchanged another set of words and smiles. How long had those two known each other?

"Doctor Banner is only here to track the Cube. I was hoping you might join him." Fury said, joining them, out of the blue. Steve just glanced at the director.

"Who's she?" Dr. Banner asked, looking at Rose "I'm sorry, but you seem quite familiar"

Apparently he had never seen her or hadn't seen her ever since she got a makeover.

Before Rose could open her mouth to introduce herself, Fury spoke up

"This is Rose Stark. She'd be lending a hand in this mission too"

So he was right.

Steve still couldn't believe she was a Stark. There was nothing in her that screamed Stark. Tony had inherited his father's eyes and he had an aura of pompousness. But Rose, she was so different. Her eyes were bright emerald green and she didn't have that air around her.

She faced Banner "Tony Stark's daughter." she extended her hand and shook it with Banner. She then looked at Fury, for spoiling her introduction and as if daring him to say anything more.

Steve just almost gaped at her. And she was glaring at Fury. And the way she was glaring at Fury, it spoke that she didn't like being interrupted. Maybe she was a Stark after all.

Fury just gave her a stern poker face, which Rose didn't find intimidating at all, by the looks of it.

Steve cleared his throat once again, drawing everyone's attention

"I'd start with that stick of his. It may be magical but it works an awful lot like a HYDRA weapon."

"I don't know about that, but it is powered by the Cube. And I like to know how Loki used it to turn two of the sharpest men I know into his personal flying monkeys." Fury added

"Monkeys? I do not understand" Thor asked

"I do!" Steve exclaimed, glad that he understood Fury's reference. To his embarrassment, the entire room went instantly silent, looking at him. He gulped and then softly added "I...I understood that reference."

Someone chuckled and looked around to find the source to be Rose, who gave him a small grin, making his face warmer.

"Shall we play, Doctor?" Tony asked Dr. Banner

"This way, sir."

And the two of them walked off. Steve saw Rose take a seat at the now vacant table and pulled out a laptop and some glasses. She wore glasses? Steve would never be caught dead saying this, but the glasses made her look cuter if that was possible.

"I didn't know you wore glasses" Steve heard Agent Romanoff ask

"I only wear them when working on screens." She answered and then looked at Fury "I need everything you have on Tesseract." And she looked back at the screen "Since the day Grandpa Howard found it to the most recent experiments you were holding at your secret New Mexico base"

She looked back at Fury, who gave her a glare. She shrugged

"Waiting for exactly what?"

And then he walked off.

Rose made a look and turned to the Agent she earlier was talking to "Did I say something offensive?"

the Agent chuckled again "He's just like that"

"Wow." She breathed and faced the screen "JARVIS, pull out all my work, can you?"

"Sure, Miss Stark" replied an electronic voice.

Steve, realizing that everyone was busy one way or other, decided to leave to find something for himself. Just as he got up, he heard Romanoff get up too. She walked along with him as they exited the bridge.

Steve spared the youngest Stark one last glance before he turned to Romanoff

"Wasn't she supposed to be younger? And how come I've never heard of her before this?"

He sure had heard of Tony Stark various times in the news but there was never mention of Rose or Tony having a daughter at all.

"Not many have. Rose is Stark's biggest kept secret"

Steve had to admit, the girl was a puzzle. Unlike Tony, she had something in her attitude, that made her interesting. Especially if she could hold down a glaring contest with Fury without battering her eyes.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "How did the best spy in the world and the effing Norse god of lies get manipulated by a 21-year-old? lmao!!"  
> -A proud Tony Stark

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The proper timeline ('cause I messed it back in ffn and realized eons later)  
> Lily's year of birth-30 Jan 1970  
> Tony's year of birth-29 May 1970  
> Rose's year of birth-31 Jul 1990  
> Murder of the Potters-31 Oct1991  
> Rose's first year at Hogwarts- 1 Sep 2001  
> Iron Man- Jun 2008  
> Iron Man 2- Nov 2008  
> Avengers-8 May 2012

Rose worked for twenty minutes when Hill walked to her

"It's time"

Rose nodded

"Cross-reference SHIELD Files and my files"

"Analyzing to be completed within one hour and thirty-three minutes"

"Take your time"

And she closed the laptop and stood up "Lead the way"

* * *

"The Gamma readings are definitely consistent with Selvig's reports on the Tesseract. But it's gonna take weeks to process." Dr. Banner said scanning the scepter

Tony hummed, working on a screen as he rotated a virtual dial

"If we bypass their mainframe and direct route to the Homer cluster we can clock this at around six hundred teraflops."

Banner gave him a look, then chuckled "All I packed was a toothbrush."

Tony scoffed, walking to Banner "You know, you should come by Stark Tower sometime. Top ten floors all R and D. Actually it's nine. Rose claimed one all for herself. You'd love it, it's a candy land."

"Thanks but...last time I was in New York I kind of broke...Harlem." Banner said, voice filled with embarrassment then paused "Your daughter, she's quite a brilliant mind"

"She's a control freak. But yeah" Tony shrugged as Banner chuckled

"But you are proud of her"

"What kind of father isn't proud of his kid?" Tony faced him, leaning on the table "Except my dad"

"Thanks but no thanks"

" Well, I promise a stress-free environment. No tension, no surprises." Tony said and then zapped Banner on the side with an electric pen

"Ow!" Bruce yelped

"Hey!"

Two of them turned to look an angry Capt. America enter

"Nothing?" Tony asked as Captain approached them

"Are you nuts?"

"Rose says I'm" Tony answered and keeping the taser back on the table, turned to Banner "You really have got a lid on it, haven't you? What's your secret? Mellow jazz, bongo drums, huge bag of weed?"

"Is everything a joke to you?" Capt. asked

"Funny things are."

"Threatening the safety of everyone on this ship isn't funny. No offense, Doc."

"No it's alright. I wouldn't have come aboard if I couldn't handle pointy things." Banner chuckled

"You're tip-toeing, big man. You need to strut." Tony told him

"And you need to focus on the problem, Mr. Stark." Capt. snapped

"You think I'm not? Why did Fury call us in? Why now, why not before? What isn't he telling us? I can't do the equation unless I have all the variables." Tony walked around, finally leaning against a table

"You think Fury's hiding something?" Capt. asked

"He's a spy. Captain, he's the spy. His secrets have secrets." Tony scoffed and then gestured to Banner. "It's bugging Rose and him too, isn't it?"

"Uh," Banner muttered, "I just wanna finish my work here an-"

"Doctor?" Capt. Asked

"'A warm light for all mankind,'" Banner quoted "Loki's jab at Fury about the Cube."

"I heard it." Capt. Agreed

"Well, I think that was meant for you and your daughter" Banner gestured at Tony "Even if Barton didn't tell Loki about the tower, it was still all over the news."

"The Stark Tower? That big ugly…." He paused at Tony's glare but continued "-building in New York?"

"It's powered by an arc reactor, self-sustaining energy source. That building will run itself for, what, a year?" Bruce looked at Tony

"Two" Tony shrugged "Rose upgraded it, she won't tell me how. But it's just the prototype." He turned to Capt. "Rose and I are kinds of the only names in clean energy right now, that's what he's getting at."

" So, why didn't SHIELD bring them in on the Tesseract project? What are they even doing in the energy business in the first place?" Banner asked

"I should probably look into that as soon as my decryption program finishes breaking into all of SHIELD's secure files." Tony said, popping a blueberry. he extended the packet to Bruce, who politely took one

"I'm sorry did you say" Capt. started

"JARVIS has been running it since I hit the bridge. In a few hours, I'll know every dirty secret SHIELD has ever tried to hide. Blueberry?" Tony extended the packet to Capt. Who ignored it

"Yet you're confused about why they didn't want you around."

"An intelligence organization that fears intelligence? Historically, not awesome." Tony snorted

Steve stared at his old friend's son for a few seconds

"I think Loki's trying to wind us up. This is a man who means to start a war and if we don't stay focused he'll succeed. We have ordered, we should follow them." Capt. Said

"Following's not really my style." Tony shrugged

"And you're all about style, aren't you?" Capt. almost snarled

Tony's jaw tightened and he stood straighter

"Out of the people in this room, which one is "A" wearing a spangly outfit and "B" not of use?"

"Steve," Banner walked across and looked at Capt. "tell me none of this smells a little funky to you?"

Capt. was about to say something when Agent Hill entered "Rose is checking in with Loki. She wanted you to know" and she left

"Crap" Tony muttered and then pulled the security footage, as Banner and Capt. walked closer to have a look.

Steve shot Tony a look, which the man completely ignored. Why the hell would Rose want to meet with Loki alone? And if it was a plan, how was Tony okay with sending his daughter to a lunatic Norse god?

* * *

Rose walked in the room Loki was kept in. So far Loki hadn't noticed her, which made her question if he really knew she was there. She walked as quietly as she could and stopped near the controls on the ramp. Loki's head rose slowly from his sitting position and he looked at her over his shoulder. She stepped a little closer so she was very well visible to him. She slid her glasses as they rested on top of her rose-gold lochs.

"Not many people are able to sneak up on me"

He stood up and walked to the edge, looking at her

"Well, then I'm glad I'm not like other people" she answered and then she scoffed "Loki, Norse god of lies, mischief and magic. You know, you used to be my patron god. Well, that is until you decided to destroy the only place I call home. You lost one of your rapidly decreasing amount of worshippers"

"I do not care"

"Of course you don't" she snorted "Under any other circumstances, I'd have been a big fangirl and all. But it's different now. Look, I've places to be, promises to keep. Can we just keep it simple and straightforward?"

"What are you doing here? After whatever tortures Fury can concoct, you would appear as a friend, as a balm. And I would cooperate."

"Actually, you got it all wrong" Rose shrugged "I'm not a balm, as you put it. I'm more of a person who adds fuel to fire. If Fury gave you burns, I'm here just give you more, if not worsen the already existing ones"

"And they sent you to interrogate me?"

"No one sent me. I'm here on my own accord"

Loki chuckled "Look at you. You are a beautiful and powerful young woman. Why would someone like you work for someone like them?"

"I don't work for SHIELD. I work for my dad. Well, technically not since he named me his company's CEO. I'm a free woman. But when I got to know that SHIELD got hold of you, I just couldn't….resist my inner fangirl"

Loki chuckled, ducking his head

"Loki, come on. Don't make it harder for either of us. What are your plans? Come on." When Loki refused to speak, Rose added "Drop a major clue, at least. You know even a minor one works" she said "even this minor" she almost brought her index finger and thumb very close

But Loki just turned around and walked away

"You are making it hard for both of us, Loki. Come on. Don't be a baby"

Loki didn't say anything. He just settled on a far side and ignored her

"Oh well," she shrugged and turned around to leave. Just as she stepped down from the platform, Loki spoke up

"Your eyes. They are the brightest green I've seen on any mortal"

Rose stopped, but didn't look or say anything. She stood there for a second, then resumed walking out

"Only one other mortal could compete with eyes like yours. You want to know who? Your mother"

Rose froze, her breath deepened

"I stumbled upon her when she was quite young once. Absolute beauty, she was. Lily Jane Evans"

Rose's jaw tightened and she shut her eyes, fists clenched

"Both you have the exact same eyes. Bright emerald green, gleaming with confidence, elegance, allure and power. But your eyes lack one thing that hers had. Innocence. You were stripped off of it, weren't you?"

Rose took a sharp intake as she stared into Loki's dull green eyes. She slowly made her way back to the ramp as Loki followed her parallelly in his cage, talking along the way

"But you are different from any other mortal I've ever met. You radiate power, pure energy. But there it is. A small spot of darkness, evil, hiding behind all that light. You've taken lives. You are not the person you pretend to be. And I can see through your façade"

Rose's breath fastened. This wasn't going according to the plan. No. She wanted to stop and move away from where she stood right in front of him, but for some reason she remained stuck there.

"Every single death that happened was on you. And you know it's true. And I know you wish you died that unfateful night. That tournament, black dog, half-blood prince, jokester, wolf, shifter, it was all on you and you know that"

Rose contemplated to move away, but remained transfixed. There was something about Loki that made her want to stay and listen. Loki slammed his hand on the glass and Rose jumped back, startled

"Everyone says it's okay, but it's not. They hate you. They hate you for everything. You got them killed. You courted chaos. You caused people to lose their families, friends, lovers, children, and whatnot. You caused it all!"

Rose's breath hitched, but she dared not look away. Rose gulped as she felt tears, but blinked them away

"And now you do everything you feel is morally correct to make it up to your father and rest of your so-called extended family. You are dangerously dependent on your father because you have abandonment issues. You say you accept that other women as a mother figure, but you hate her because she took your mother's place. You hate the way you look because it reminds of you of your mother, so you do everything not to look like her. Everyone hates you for what you did to your world!"

Rose stumbled a step back as a stray tear slipped. She quickly wiped it and stood just centimeters away from the glass

Her voice dropped to dangerously low "You are not above making uncharacteristically believable lies to get what you want. So listen closely, I'm not scared of you. I never was and never will be. You are not the first god I've come across and you won't be the last. You can fool everyone in that ship but me. 'Cause I know you. You and I, we are alike. And I might wanna remind you that you are not the only person able to play mind tricks here. I happen to be very well versed in those." She took a step back and slammed her hand over Loki's on top of the glass.

Suddenly Loki was thrown to the far end of the cage. He groaned, settling on his knees as he slowly stood up.

"You know nothing of me. You know nothing of my mother. So don't ever talk about my life like you know it. 'Cause if you think of placing another toe out of the line, then every other man and woman on the bridge and on this helicarrier would be least of worries. And when I'll be done with you, I'll make Thor and Hulk look like babies. I would destroy you, heal you back and do it all over again. Trust me, I hold one hell of a grudge"

She stepped back and started walking away, but stopped and looked at him

"You are naïve. Very naïve for a god-like yourself. All I did was to give you a sneak peek into my head and you just wove a story around one little fact. And doing so you did a big mistake. I waved a piece of meat and you jumped at it, like a starving dog, wagging your tail."

Realization dawned upon Loki and his eyes widened

"Remember, you are not the only trickster aboard. You may be a god, but I'm no less. And you just made a terrible enemy" and she walked away

* * *

Steve's eyes were wide as he saw the exchange. and from that, he concluded two things

1\. Rose Stark had much more to herself than what she showcased

2\. Do not get on Rose Stark's wrong side

He looked at Tony, who closed off the video feed and then ran a hand through his hair

"How bad is it?" Banner asked "And how did she do that?"

"She's got powers" Tony vaguely replied "It's bad. Quite. He talked about her mother"

"He touched a nerve" Banner noted

"Yeah" Tony quickly replied and walked out of the lab. Steve and Banner exchanged a look and followed him. Just as they entered the bridge, so did Rose and she looked pissed. And then to Steve's surprise, Tony did something he didn't expect him to. He hugged Rose tight and muttered something in her ear for which she nodded in return.

Howard was never the touchy kind of guy. Sure he had a reputation among women, but he was not one to get emotionally attached. And from the looks of the father-daughter in front of him, they were very close. Hadn't Loki mentioned something about abandonment issues?

* * *

Rose walked to the bridge but before she could take a seat, someone wrapped their arms around her. She inhaled her fathers musky scent and relaxed

"You okay?"

"I'm fine" she answered into his chest. She pulled a second later and sniffed and exhaled

"What did you find?" Fury asked appearing

"It's Dr. Banner" she said, sparing a glance at the said doctor, who was there now with Capt. America "He wants to unleash the Hulk. His plan is quite simple." She said, pulling her laptop and raising a hologram of the Helicarrier

"He got us two distractions. Dr. Banner on the inside. Agent Barton on the outside. Barton's got a special force team, consisting of all of SHIELD's enemies at one place and every one of them knowing about this helicarrier."

"so Banner's a distraction while Barton and others rescue Reindeer games?" Tony asked, sitting next to her

"That's the basic plan. And while we are busy with Hulk and attack on the carrier, no one has a chance to stop Barton from rescuing Loki" Rose nodded and turned to Banner "no offense, Dr."

"None taken" Banner smiled at her

"And damage control on top of that" Romanoff muttered "That would take a lot of time"

"All the time Loki needs to activate a portal and get the army here" Rose said and closed the hologram and the laptop. She looked up at Fury

"Now can you explain what's Phase 2?"

Every head turned to Rose and then to Fury, who seemed to glare at her

"I'd kindly ask you not to use your powers on my, Ms. Stark"

"And I'd kindly ask about Phase 2, yet again"

Fury just stood there, poker-faced

"Ms. Stark, that information is c-"

"You tell me that it's classified and I'll walk right out of here" she said, looking him dead in the eye, pointing at the exit "You and I both know that I'm your only play when it comes to controlling the Tesseract"

"You can control it?"

She looked at Banner over her shoulder

"Yes" she nodded and then looked at Fury "But I want answers in return"

Fury gave her an irritated look

"I want to know what was SHIELD doing with Tesseract in the first place. I get it. Every child loves a shiny new toy. Hell, arc reactor was my favorite when I was a kid, but after a while it lost its appeal to me. So why is SHIELD still hanging on Tesseract even after 70 years of finding nothing? You couldn't extract even 1 joule of energy from it. You couldn't understand its behavior. You couldn't even control it. What makes this cube so important that you haven't tossed it away already and got a new shiny new toy and I know SHIELD has eyes on many"

She looked back into her laptop, furiously typed over. Then she pulled out what looked like holograms of different pages

"Even the reports on Tesseract and dangerously incomplete. How the hell do you expect people to find something that you are so paranoid to talk about?"

If anything, Fury's face tightened

"Trust has to work both ways, I guess. If you cannot give me my answers, then I'm not giving my support"

"Kid's right" Tony spoke up, swinging his feet over the table "We know nothing of this cube other than the fact that it is a magical blue glowing cube that emits radiation. And that you guys are head over heels for this" he held the hologram of the Tesseract

"That thing is not only magical. It's got a conscience. Believe me. Nothing's more dangerous than the energy which can think as well" and then pushed of Tony's feet

"Feet off the table"

Fury, with one last glare, turned around and left

"Just wow" Rose breathed, removing her glasses and turned to Tony "That guy is beyond reasoning, isn't he?"

Tony scoffed "And has too big of stick up his ass" he muttered

"I second that" Rose said and stood up, bagging her laptop

"Paris?" Tony asked

"Yeah. I was supposed to meet Angie there today"

And she started walking away when

"And you are going to endanger everyone's life?"

She turned around to see the speaker- Capt. America

"Capt., Chitauri are not going to destroy only America or only Paris. It's the whole planet. If SHIELD can't trust us with the information of the object we are supposed to find, then there's some serious issues with the boss man. Serious trust issues"

And she turned around

"Miss Stark"

She stopped with a frustrated groan and turned to look at Hill

"Director Fury is asking for you in his office"

And she left. A smile came on Rose's lips as she noticed everyone looking at her. She walked to the corridor but stopped next to Tony

"You owe me a fifty and a dinner"

"How did you convince Fury?"

She turned at Romanoff

"Like I said to Loki. He's not the only trickster on board"

"She's a master manipulator" Tony snorted

"I'll take that as a compliment" Rose smiled and walked off to Fury's office


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "I'm gonna kill them. I'm gonna kill them all......Maybe except Rose 'cause she's cute"  
> -An antagonized Black Widow

After being there for nearly an hour and getting to know all kinds of secrets Fury was ~~willing~~ allowed to reveal, Rose finally felt like she finally knew something. She also knew that Fury hadn't told her a hell lot of things, but what Fury hadn't told her, Rose had picked it from inside his head. And when he was done, she stood up to leave

"The Tesseract doesn't belong to Earth. The farther away it is from us, the better"

And she left. She looked through various rooms until she found the Wishbone lab with Tony and Banner inside, casually sauntering in

"Hey. How did it go with patchwork?" Tony asked

"He's still reluctant to give a lot of things up."

"And you are telling me you didn't brainstorm his mind?"

"I never said that" Rose shrugged and sat on top of one of the tables "I hope dad wasn't very much out of his line, Dr. Banner"

Banner chuckled, ducking his head while Tony looked offended

"I resent that!"

"You called a god Point Break" Rose pointed

"Yeah well, that's different"

"No, it's not" Rose said and turned to Banner "Doc?"

"He was good"

"Thanks, Dr. Banner" Tony gave Banner a look, which made him chuckle more

"So, what do you think of Fury's dream team?" Rose asked, trying to keep them as occupied as she could. She didn't want them asking about Phase 2. She knew they won't like it. But she also knew that she can create some tension in the team. Phase 2 was something Fury should have either told hem earlier or have mentioned somewhere. Not telling them what they were planning was not cool. But she also knew that others were not idiots. If she was trying to stall, most people would on the team suspect so

Bruce shrugged "It's fine"

"Well, it's cool. Why would you ask that?" Tony asked

"Because neither of us is a team player, dad. We don't work well with anyone other than each other."

"Yeah. And that's because I've known you since forever. Like 22 years." Tony replied, making Rose roll her eyes

"I'm 21"

"I'm accounting 9 months of pregnancy as well"

Rose rolled her eyes again while Bruce chuckled

"And you have no problems with Capt.?" Rose raised her brow as Tony gave her a look "I know your issue"

"He just came over and started throwing his 40's goody-two-shoe-morals"

"He's a man from the 40s" Rose pointed

"He is quite against all of our questioning SHIELD's plans. And he didn't like you manipulating Fury into letting out stuff to you" Banner said

"Not my problem. I'm here to control that cube. Not to please anyone. If he feels too offended by it, he should shut his cakehole off"

Banner gave her an amused look

"I can't believe that's the guy my dad never shut up about? Wondering if they shouldn't have kept him on ice."

"Hey, that's a good idea, dad. A hyper-reactive freezing agent. Hmm" she wondered "That could be my summer project"

Tony gave her an ' _I'm proud of you_ ' look while Banner shot her a look of disbelief. He shook his slightly, before working back on the screen

"Guy's not wrong about Loki, he does have the jump on us." Banner said, "What do you think Ms. Stark?"

"Rose, please," she said "I agree. Guy's not very perceptive. But it still feels like we're all where he wants us to be. I agree with Capt. here"

"What he's got is an ACME dynamite kit. It's gonna blow up in his face, and I'm gonna be there when it does."

"I'll read all about it." Banner chuckled

"Mhm, or, you'll be suiting up with the rest of us." Tony looked at Banner

"Now, you see I don't get a suit of armor. I'm exposed, like a nerve, it's a nightmare."

" You know, I've got cluster shrapnel, trying every second to crawl its way into my heart. This stops it" Tony tapped at his arc reactor "This little circle of light. It's part of me now, not just armor. It's a terrible privilege."

"But you can control it."

"Because I learned how," Tony replied, walking behind Bruce

"It's different." Banner sighed

"It's not. She struggles too" Tony said, pointing at Rose with a pen

"With what?" Banner looked at her

Rose sighed "There were times when my powers reacted to my emotions. If I was scared, angry or having any bad feeling, bad things would happen around me. This one time when I was 7 or 8, I short-circuited the whole house because I was having a nightmare. You have no idea how many of Dad's tech I have fried" she chuckled humorlessly "It still happens sometimes. I really have to keep my temperament in check or my power go haywire like you do when you hulk out"

Banner looked at her for a strong moment, studying her

"Energy with a conscience. You meant yourself, didn't you?"

Rose cracked a small smile and nodded "Many people of my kind aren't exactly as powerful as I'm. But yeah. We call it magic. Some people call it energy, some Chi." Rose shrugged "People like me, we are kind of like energy within the human body."

"Like a walking, talking and thinking form of energy"

"Yeah. That's one way to put it. And that's why sometimes this energy reacts to the way its host is. Mostly it's protective, but sometimes it can be dangerously destructive"

"how do you keep your cool?"

Rose shrugged "I found myself an anchor"

At Bruce's questioning look, she elaborated

"Anytime I felt like I was losing control, I'd think of something that makes me happy. Remember something or someone who reminds me of my humanity. I'm half-human, by the way. It just calms me and makes me realize what's going around. Grounds me back to reality. That's an anchor"

"What's your anchor?"

"Dad" Rose shrugged

"Love you too munchkin!" Tony exclaimed, tossing her a blueberry packet. Rose rolled her eyes and tore the packet open

"Finding an anchor helps. I'm telling you from firsthand experience"

Banner chuckled again

"No offense, Doc, but I kinda read all about your accident. That much Gamma exposure should've killed you, theoretically." Rose said, popping another blueberry

"So you're saying that the Hulk- the Other Guy- saved my life?" Banner asked, looking at her "That's nice. That's a nice sentiment. Saved it for- what?"

"I guess we'll find out." Tony chirped in

"You may not enjoy that." Banner said

"And you just might," Tony replied

Suddenly the screen near them beeped for a second before showing 'ACCESS DENIED'. Tony started working on that screen yet again

And within the next moment, Fury stormed into the lab

"What are you doing, Mr. Stark?"

"Uh- kind of been wondering the same thing about you," Tony answered

"You're supposed to be locating the Tesseract." Fury snapped.

Rose leaned back a little, getting comfortable while popping blueberries in her mouth

"We are, the model's locked and we're sweeping for the signature now. When we get a hit, we'll have the location within half a mile." Banner answered, pointing at the search algorithm on a different screen

"And you'll get your cube back, no muss, no fuss. What is Phase Two?" Tony asked

Fury turned around and glared at Rose

"Nuh-uh. Haven't muttered a single word"

"Stop creeping at my daughter and answer us"

Suddenly Capt. entered and slammed a large HYDRA-like gun on the table.

"Phase Two is SHIELD using the Cube to make weapons." He said and looked at Tony "Sorry, the computer was moving a little slow for me."

Fury again glared at Rose

"What did you do?" he growled

"I may or may not have planted a random seed of doubt in Cap's head. But mostly dad was into your systems way before I tricked you into telling me stuff. They deserved to know"

"You swore!"

"I swore I won't tell them. I never said I won't make them find it out on their own"

"Don't you dare. You aren't my daughter's boss" Tony came and stood between Rose and Fury

Fury let out a huge sigh and then turned to Cap

"Rogers, we gathered everything related to the Tesseract. This does not mean that we're-"

"I'm sorry, Nick." Tony interrupted turning a screen towards him "What were you lying?"

There was an animated model of what looked a warhead missile

"I was wrong, Director. The world hasn't changed a bit." Capt. Muttered

Only then Natasha and Thor entered

"Did you know about this?" Banner asked the red-headed spy

"You wanna think about removing yourself from this environment, doctor?" Natasha warmed him

Banner nervously laughed "I was in Calcutta, I was pretty well removed."

"Loki's manipulating you."

"Like I told them," Rose said but got ignored

"And you've been doing what exactly?" Banner asked

"You didn't come here because I bat my eyelashes at you." Natasha snarled at him

"Yes, and I'm not leaving because suddenly you get a little twitchy." Banner said and walked around, holding the screen and pointing at the missile with a pen "I'd like to know why SHIELD is using the Tesseract to build weapons of mass destruction."

There was a brief silence and then Fury spoke up

"Because of him." He pointed at Thor

"Me?" Thor asked, confused

"Last year earth had a visitor from another planet who had a grudge match that leveled a small town. We learned that not only are we not alone, but we are hopelessly and hilariously, out-gunned."

"My people want nothing but peace with your planet," Thor argued

"But you're not the only people out there, are you? And, you're not the only threat. The world's filling up with people who can't be matched, they can't be controlled."

Fury's glance briefly slipped over Rose, who easily ignored it

"Like you controlled the cube!" Steve demanded

"Your work with the Tesseract is what drew Loki to it, and his allies. It is the signal to all the realms that the earth is ready for a higher form of war." Thor announced

"A higher form?!" Capt. asked

"You forced our hand! We had to come up with some-"

Tony cut Fury off "Nuclear deterrent! 'Cause that always calms everything right down."

"Remind me again how you made your fortune, Stark?" Fury took a couple of steps towards Tony

"I'm sure if he still made weapons, Stark would be neck deep-" Cap started

"Wait-Wait!" Tony stopped Capt. "Hold on! How is this now about me?"

"I'm sorry, isn't everything?" Capt. Asked

"I thought humans were more evolved than this." Thor chuckled

"Excuse me, did we come to your planet and blow stuff up?" Fury demanded of the god and at once all kinds of bickering started.

Rose, sitting back, observing everything put her hand into the packet to find that it was empty now. She checked inside it, even inverted the packet on top of her face, but nothing came out.

"huh" she snorted "Now's a good time as ever" she muttered

She threw away the pack and joined her hands

"sonorous" she muttered and cupped her mouth

"EVERYBODY! SHUT! UP!"

And everything went silent as the Sahara dessert within a moment. Everyone in the room looked at her with different expressions.

"Are all of you stupid?" she asked, frowning "Arguing and bickering like 5-year-olds in a park. Grow up! So what if SHIELD made weapons? They are useless. They do not know how to control or extract from the tesseract. I've read all the files and yes I hacked." she shot a glare at Fury before looking at others

"And all this tension in the room? I can cut it with a butter-knife. This was exactly what Loki wanted. Dr. Banner's already having a migraine and next thing we know he hulks out on all of us. We are being catalysts in Loki's plan so can we just stop doing that." And she then turned back to Fury

"If you had been pretty honest with us from the first place, it wouldn't have come to dad hacking into your systems. I literally had to trick you into telling me stuff. Do you think I do that on a regular basis? Doing stuff like that drains me too"

She stopped and took a deep breath,

"Everyone better go back to their work. And someone please figure out why that effing scepter is glowing"

At once all the heads turned towards the scepter on the table, which was indeed glowing

Rose turned around, rubbing her forehead. It was a major indication of a heavy headache coming and it wasn't good. Headache's made her moody. And moody her was a bitch.

Suddenly she felt someone hold her elbow and guide to and end of the lab.

"How bad is it?" Tony asked

"I'm fine, dad" she whispered

"Hey, I can see a headache coming a mile away. How bad?"

"I'm not going on a murder rampage. Though one more argument and I might reconsider it"

Tony almost chuckled "You shouldn't be here"

"Am I that bad?" Rose pouted

"No. If anything, things are only going to get worse. And we both know how good you are with a headache"

Rose took a deep breath and rubbed her temple again

"I'll be fine"

Before Tony could say anything, Fury spoke up

"There are more pressing matters here, Stark"

Tony turned towards the Director with a scowl

"I'm sorry but nothing's a more pressing matter to me that my daughter's wellbeing"

"Dad" She tried holding him back but it only slightly worsened her headache

"What going on with you?" Fury demanded Rose, almost snarling

"Nothing that concerns you" Tony bit back

"I'm fine" Rose answered

Suddenly Tony's head perked up and he looked at Fury

"Is she on that list?"

Fury remained shut

"Why is my daughter on that list?"

"She's a potential threat" Fury answered

"Yeah I remember her leveling towns or something"

Thor snarled at the jab

"I swear to God, Stark," Capt. stepped up "one more wisecrack..."

"You're a threat. VERBAL THREAT!" Tony exclaimed, "I FEEL THREATENED!"

"Show some respect" Capt. snarled

"You speak of control, yet you court chaos!" Thor said

Rose just stepped back and at once the bickering started all over again. Her headache had taken a turn for the worse and now her vision was slightly getting fuzzy. Using legilimency on so many people, one of them being a god was now taking a toll on her

"It's his MO, isn't it? I mean, what are we, a team? No, no, no. We're a chemical mixture that makes chaos. We're- we're a time bomb."

"You need to step away." Fury warned Banner

"Why shouldn't the guy let off a little steam?" Tony asked, almost resting a hand on Cap's shoulder only for Cap to slap it away

"You know damn well why! Back off!" Capt. snapped

"Oh, I'm starting to want you to make me." Tony taunted. Cap turned and faced him

"Yeah, big man in a suit of armor. Take that off, what are you?"

"Genius, billionaire, father, philanthropist."

The voices around her were now slowly fading out. But she did hear what Tony had said and well, she'd give him some browny points for that

"I know guys with none of that worth ten of you. I've seen the footage. The only thing you really fight for is yourself. You're not the guy to make the sacrifice play, to lay down on a wire and let the other guy crawl over you."

"I fight for myself and my daughter. But you know what, I think I would just cut the wire."

"Always a way out. You know, you may not be a threat, but you better stop pretending to be a hero."

"A hero, like you? You're a laboratory experiment, Rogers. Everything special about you came out of a bott-"

Before Tony could finish he heard a loud thump and everything went silent once more.

He had a bad feeling in his stomach and turning around, his eyes widened. He rushed next to his fallen daughter and quickly checked her pulse

"Rose! Hey!" he slightly patted her cheek "Hey munchkin! Wake up. Rosie?!" and now he was terrified. Never once had Rose's magic caused her to blackout. He shifted her so her head was in his lap

"Hey, baby! Come on! Wake up!"

"Pulse is still there"

He looked at Romanoff who was holding Rose wrist

"Where's the medical ward or whatever you have?" Tony demanded at Nick

"This way"

Tony picked his daughter up in his arms and followed Nick out of the lab and to the medical room. He settled her on a ward bed, informed the doctor of the condition and went back to the lab.

* * *

Everyone was still there, except Fury

"Is she okay?" Banner asked, pausing his scan of the scepter

"I don't know" Tony sighed "I shouldn't have brought her here"

Before anyone else could say anything, the monitor near them beeped. Banner rushed to it and checked it

"got it" he told others

"You okay?" Romanoff asked Tony

"I just want to end this so I can get her back home" Tony grumbled and started walking away but Capt. held him back

"You're not going alone!" Capt. Argued, but Tony smacked his hand away

"You gonna stop me?" Tony demanded

"Put on the suit, let's find out!"

"I'm not afraid to hit an old man."

"Put on the suit."

And then suddenly there was a blast. Everyone in the lab was thrown in different directions. Thor fell to the ground behind a table. Tony and Steve were blown to the entryway. Banner and Natasha flew out of the Wishbone lab and into the lower equipment room.

Capt. and Tony scrambled to their feet.

"Put on the suit." Capt. Said

"Yep." Tony agreed


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "I haTE YOU UNIVERSE!!"  
> -Rose, Tony, Avengers and 1.5 million people of Manhattan

Rose didn't know what happened. She knew her head hurt hard. She knew her hand hurt, probably numb as she couldn't feel anything.

She slowly tried opening her eyes, but quickly blinked them shut due to blinding white light. She kept trying it again and again until she finally felt easy to open her eyes and look around.

First, it felt heavy and blurry but then things slowly started forming up and around.

"take it easy"

She turned to the source of the voice which turned out to be Agent Hill. She had a few cuts and bruises on her face, dried blood matted on her forehead, but other than that, she seemed fine.

"W-What hap-hape-happen-"

"Relax. You are weak. Don't stress it out"

Rose closed her eyes and took a deep breath

"Dad?"

"I'll have Stark ge-"

Before she could finish that sentence, the door was slammed open and there stood Tony, followed by Capt.

"Da-"

She was quickly interrupted when Tony hugged her tight. Rose responded to the hug and rubbed circles on his back. She could feel that he was terrified and she offered in as much support as she could.

"Everything's okay" she whispered into Tony's ear

Tony pulled out after a while and took a sharp breath

"You scared me, Rosie"

"I didn't mean to" she answered and looked at Capt. who also supported some injuries

"It happened, didn't it?" She asked, trying to sit up, wincing but managing to do so.

"Easy there" Tony whispered, trying to ease her but she ignored it

"Dad" she turned to Tony "did it happen? Barton took Loki, didn't he?"

Tony sighed, sitting on a close-by chair

"He did" Capt. replied grimly

"I told you everything! Every single detail of the plan and yet you lost to him?! Who does that?" Rose demanded, getting angrier by every second "What's the point of me being here if my hard work is just going to flow down the drain?"

"We underestimated Loki" Fury entered

"He's a god" Rose frowned "And a god of lies. What do you expect? He's a person who's well versed in both mystical arts and weapons. Tactics and strategy are his strongest play. I spoiled everything for you and still, he managed to escape. That's just bloody unbelievable!" she scoffed

"Rosie, we tried our best" Tony tried "Thor and Banner are down somewhere. It's just us now"

"We could now use some serious help, Ms. Stark," Fury said

Rose glared at him but said nothing. Then she sighed

"I wish I could help. But using my powers on a god doesn't come without repercussions. I've literally drained my battery all the way down to the red. I need time to recharge and sadly, a few protein supplements or a couple of hours of shut-eye ain't gonna help"

"We can get you anything you want. These are desperate circumstances"

"I was hoping it wouldn't come to it" Rose snapped back "I'll be fine." She took a deep breath "What else? How many are hurt?"

"Not many. And Barton's back with us" Fury responded

"That's some development" Rose muttered

Fury didn't say anything for a minute but then he looked at Capt. and took out a deck of cards, smudged with blood

"These were in Phil Coulson's jacket. Guess he never did get you to sign them.

Fury took Capt.'s hand and handed it to him

"Phil?" Rose asked, surprised to hear his name. She knew Phil's obsession with Capt. But she also knew Phil wouldn't be caught dead with those cards away and unsafe

"Loki" Tony whispered.

Rose closed her eyes as she took a staggering breath

"We're dead in the air up here. Our communications, location of the cube, Banner, Thor. I got nothing for you. Lost my one good eye. Think I had that coming."

Fury inhaled sharply and looked at the two Starks

"Yes, we were going to build an arsenal with the Tesseract. I never put all my chips on that number, though, because I was playing something even riskier. There was an idea, Starks knows this, called the Avengers Initiative."

Fury took a few steps into the wardroom, sparing one look at Capt.

"The idea was to bring together a group of remarkable people, see if they could become something more. See if they could work together when we needed them to, to fight the battles that we never could. Phil Coulson died still believing in that idea, in heroes."

Tony stood up to leave but Rose held his hand, stopping him

"Well, it's an old fashioned notion" Fury muttered and left

Hill left, following him.

The three of them stayed in the hospital ward, in silence until Capt. spoke up

"Was he married?"

"No. There was a...uh- cellist, I think." Tony answered

"I'm sorry. He seemed like a good man."

"He was an idiot," Tony answered after a pause

"Why? For believing?" Steve frowned

"For taking on Loki alone."

"He was doing his job."

"He was out of his league. He should have waited. He should hav-"

"Sometimes there isn't a way o-"

"Stop fighting. Please"

Both the men stopped and looked at Rose, sitting on the medical ward bed. Her face was flushed but at the same time, she looked calm. Even her voice was softer

She opened her eyes, but they were glassy

"This was what got everyone in trouble. Your constant argument. You have different opinions, fine. At least don't use them as an excuse to fight." She took a deep breath

"Capt., only you have an experience of war here. So don't assume we all do the same. Phil was a great guy. But he wasn't a soldier. He was an agent. Stop assuming that everyone here is a soldier. And dad" she looked at Tony "For once. Play well with people whom you haven't known for 22 years."

Both the men seemed to come to a silent agreement. But then Tony looked up at Capt.

"I'm not marching to Fury's tune."

"Neither am I."

"Nor is she"

Rose sighed. Did nothing go into a man's head?

"But he's got the same blood on his hands that Loki does, but right now we gotta put that behind us and get this done. Now Loki needs a power source if we can put together a list"

"He made it personal," Rose whispered, interrupting Capt. again

"That's not the point." Steve muttered

"That is exactly the point." Rose said "That's Loki's point. He hit us all right where we live. Why?"

"To tear us apart." Capt. Answered

"Yeah, divide and conquer is great but-" Tony added

"he knows he has to take us out to win, right," Rose said "That's what he wants."

Tony's eyes widen slightly at the point Rose was making

"He wants to beat us, he wants to be seen doing it. He wants an audience." Tony continued as Capt. looked between the two like a tennis match

"Right. I caught his act in Stuttgart." Capt. said

"Yeah. That's just previews, this is- this is opening night. And Loki, he's a full-tail diva."

"He wants flowers, he wants parades, he wants a" Rose paused, her words getting slower "monument built to the skies with his name plastered..." Rose stopped and shared a startled look with her father

"Son-of-a-bitch." They both muttered together. Tony turned on his heel to leave the ward as Rose overthrew her covers, picked her jacket and walked out, following Tony

* * *

Rose followed Tony into the lab where he made quick repairs to his suit

"Need a hand?" Rose asked

"Nope" Tony mumbled, screwdriver in mouth as he repaired his suit

"Want me to come?" she asked, leaning on the table

"do you want to?"

Rose shrugged

"Someone's gotta keep you alive"

Tony chuckled "Got a suit?"

"I've been working on something"

Tony looked at Rose, eyebrow raised

"I had a free weekend. And seeing your work" she shrugged again "It inspired me"

"Let's have a look"

Rose walked to her backpack, took out a small metal cuboid, expanded it and, keeping it on the table. She shot Tony a smirk, who was now watching the suitcase with folded arms and opened it up

Inside it was a deep royal purple full sleeve crop top, black high waisted leather pants and black knee-length boots **(1).**

"Is that..?" Tony looked at Rose in surprise

"Yup. Dragon Leather. I combined it a little with Polyester for better mobility, but yeah. Charlie sent me a roll a while ago"

"Suit up then, I guess"

Rose chuckled and entered a restroom to suit up.

* * *

Rose pulled on the clothes, tied her rose-gold hair into a high ponytail and looked at her reflection and then at her palm where sat a black stone attached to a silver necklace. She considered for a second before she wrapped it around her neck. Now she was ready.

"I'll meet in the city," she said to Tony, who nodded back, still on the procedure to put the suit on

She joined Capt, Clint, and Natasha as the four walked into the jet

"Hey, you guys aren't authorized to be in here." A SHIELD engineer complained. Before anyone could say anything, Rose stepped forward and tapped his forehead for a second and proceeded to walk inside. The other three looked at her and then at the engineer. The man seemed to be in a daze and with a shake of the head, walked out like nothing happened there

Rose started adjusting levers and buttons when she noticed the three looked at her

"He'll be fine. And I guess we are on a very tight schedule" and then she stood up "Agent Barton?"

* * *

Rose sat in the quinjet as she went through a small satchel she always carried. She picked out certain small vials and drank them all in a single gulp. After a while, she stopped, putting it all back. She kept her satchel back and slightly bent forward, resting her elbows on her knees and her head inwards. Her breath got shorter and harder as she felt the potions take over.

"You okay?"

Rose slightly tilted her head and saw Natasha, crouching next to her. She didn't look worried much.

"Give me a few minutes"

Rose felt a hand on her knee.

And then the pain started. Rose clutched her head as she kept her grunts as quiet as possible

"Is she alright?"

She heard Barton asked

"Rose?" Capt. called

But Rose just grunted a little harder

"We shouldn't h-"

"I'm good" she replied, her voice and words coming through gritted teeth. And then the pain stopped. Rose sighed in relief as her breath softened

"Rose?" Natasha called

"Yeah. Still here. I'm good" she answered and then slowly raised her head

"Why are you sweating?" Capt. asked

"Just recharging my magic" she answered and wiped her forehead and face with her hands "Are we there?"

"almost"

* * *

Tony landed and as his suit is deconstructed, he walked through into the tower penthouse, watching Loki carefully. Loki walked in as well.

Inside the tower, Loki walked forward as Tony went behind his bar.

"Please tell me you're going to appeal to my humanity." Loki chuckled

"Uh- actually, I'm planning to threaten you," Tony said, pouring himself a glass

" You should have left your armor on for that."

"Yeah, it's seen a bit of mileage. You've got the uh- blue stick of destiny. Would you like a drink?"

"Stalling me won't change anything."

"No, no, no- threatening. No drink? You sure? I'm having one."

"The Chitauri are coming, nothing will change that. What have I to fear?"

" The Avengers. It's what we call ourselves, sort of like a team. 'Earth's Mightiest Heroes' type of thing."

"Yes, I've met them."

"Yeah, takes us a while to get any traction, I'll give you that one" Tony pulled from the bar "But, let's do a headcount here. Your brother, the Demi-God; My daughter, the strongest magic user on the planet; A super-soldier, a living legend who kind of lives up to the legend; a man with breath-taking anger management issues; a couple of master assassins, and you, big fella, you've managed to piss off every single one of them."

"That was the plan."

Tony began to walk to the center of the penthouse where Loki was.

"Not a great plan. When they come, and they will, they'll come for you."

"I have an army."

"We have a Hulk."

"Oh, I thought the beast had wandered off."

"Yeah- you're missing the point. There's no throne, there is no version of this, where you come out on top. Maybe your army comes and maybe it's too much for us, but it's all on you. 'Cause if we can't protect the earth, you can be damned well sure we'll avenge it." And Tony took a sip

Loki walked over to Tony, pointing his scepter.

"How will your friends have time for me, when they're so busy fighting you?"

Loki placed the tip of the scepter over his heart. It clinked against the arc reactor. He repeated it but nothing happened

"This usually works." He muttered

"Well, performance issues. You know one out of fi-"

Loki suddenly grabbed Tony by the throat and threw him across the room.

"JARVIS, anytime now," Tony muttered

Loki grabbed Tony again.

"You will all fall before me."

"JARVIS. Deploy." He muttered as Loki grabbed him again and threw him out, crashing through the windows.

* * *

By the time the quinjet arrived at the scene, there was a blue stream heading towards the sky

"Oh god!" Rose muttered seeing the horror of alien species exiting the wormhole and attacking people

"Can't you do something?" She looked at Capt. Over her shoulders

"Not with so much of tech around me. My magic will deep fry them. I need to step outside"

As Barton and Natasha start shooting the Chitauri army, the quinjet was attacked, destroying one of its rotors.

Natasha and Barton held on for their dear lives. Before Rose could do anything, she felt someone grab her by her waist and pull closer. She closed her eyes, clutching on tight, anticipating the impact. The quinjet crashed onto the street, and thankfully no civilians were hurt. Rose slowly opened her eyes and she pulled.

"thanks" she gave Capt. a soft smile. She tried pulling but Capt's arm was still wrapped around her waist. Looking back at him, she found him still staring at her. Rose chuckled and snapped her fingers in front of his face, which made him snap out

"Has no one ever told you that staring is bad?" she asked

Rose Stark would pay millions to see the flushed look of Capt. America again. He quickly let go of her as she stumbled a few steps

"Come on. An alien army is waiting to get destroyed"

* * *

Steve had no idea what possessed him. Sure he held onto Rose just before the crash because she was the one without any support as such. and she was small. 5.5 ft? and she had a small built. Steve just wanted to make sure that she didn't hurt herself during the crash. He had seen how in pain she was when she recharged her magic. and she had already fainted once.

And when he held her close, he actually realized how small she was. She easily fit in his arms when they crashed as he took the major impact of it. when it all stopped, she still looked shaken but didn't show it on her face.

Steve took a deep breath stabilizing himself. And he also caught something. a whiff of her shampoo which had a fruity flavor. Her perfume was nice. As he looked her closer, he realized her the inner rims of her green eyes had specks of brown. And she had ever so minute freckles on her face. He also observed a weird faded scar on her forehead, which slightly resembled a lightning bolt. He also saw that her ears were pierced on more than one spo-

Snap!

he looked back at her as she lowered her fingers with a smirk

"Has no one ever told you that staring is bad?" her voice was teasing and mischievous. and realizing what he had been doing, he quickly let her go. Apparently she wasn't ready because she stumbled a few steps before managing herself. He felt his face getting warmer and he looked away. anywhere but at the green-eyed girl

"Come on," she said, stepping out "An Alien army is waiting to get destroyed"

* * *

The four got out and checked in on their surroundings

"We gotta get back up there." Capt. said looking on the top of the Stark Tower

They ran onto the overpass, looking up at Stark Tower. They froze hearing a shriek and look up to see a giant flying slug coming out of the portal

"Just when I thought I was done with weird" Rose muttered, taking a step back

* * *


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "I'm surrounded by suicidals"  
> "Have you counted yourself?"  
> "uh....."  
> -Rose and Tony

To Rose and everyone's horror, some Chitauri aliens jumped of the slug and latched onto the buildings and start attacking the civilians

"Dad? Tell me you are seeing this" Rose said into her comm.

" _Seeing, alright. Still working on believing..._ " Tony replied " _...Where's Banner? Has he shown up yet?_ "

"Banner?" Capt. asked

" _Just keep me posted._ "

The slug roared and went through the buildings as the huge skyscrapers were reduced to not much but debris. the four separated trying to dodge the rubble falling from the sky, taking shelter wherever they could.

Rose, Barton, and Natasha crouched behind a taxi cab, attacking the Chitauri as well. Cap ran over.

"We've got civilians trapped," Barton said pointing at a building

Natasha stood up and fired both her guns at an incoming group of Chitauri.

"We got this. It's good. Go!" Natasha looked at Capt.

"You think you can hold them off?"

Barton pulled out an arrow and lodged it into his bow "Captain, it would be my genuine pleasure." And he shot an alien in the head, the arrow quickly further divided into more arrows, killing three Chitauri aliens.

Rose used any and every offensive spell she ever learned to attack at the Chitauri. And it was times like these, she was happy that she had trained herself wandless and wordless magic.

Rose did a low swipe, blasted off a few aliens, when suddenly one of them held her in a headlock. She grunted, pressing her heeled boot on its foot. It screeched an inhuman scream. She banged the back of her head into its face and then tossed it over her shoulder, breaking off its arm. She wiped her face with her arm and looked at to see Capt. America give her a nod.

She blasted a few more aliens when she noticed someone hit her back. She was about to attack but found it was Clint. Soon Natasha joined them. The three of them were surrounded by aliens

"When I say, duck"

She waited for more of them come and join and once she found the perfect opportunity,

"Now!"

Natasha and Clint crouched as Rose extended her hand, eyes glowing bright green

"Confringo Maxima!"

And at once all the aliens around them were blasted into pieces.

"wow" Clint muttered, standing up "That was cool magic"

"To you" Rose replied, the brightness of her eyes reducing "There are more from where they came"

And they were attacked by more. Suddenly Thor drops down from the tower and killed Chitauri with a bolt of lightning while Capt. cleared out the rest

"What's the story upstairs?" Capt asked

"The power surrounding the cube is impenetrable," Thor answered, stumbling to get a hold

" _Thor is right, we gotta deal with these guys._ " Tony piped in

"How do we do this?" Natasha asked

"As a team." Capt. Answered

"I have unfinished business with Loki." Thor declared

"Oh yeah! Get in line." Barton chimed in, as he readied some arrows

"Save it." Capt ordered "Loki's gonna keep this fight focused on us and that's what we need. Without him, these things could run wild. We got Stark up top, he's gonna need us to" he stopped, hearing the sound of a motorbike.

Rose turned around and saw Banner arrive at the scene on a motorbike. He was dirty and wore clothes bigger to him. They all approach him as Banner walked over to them, looking around and surveying the damage

"So, this all seems horrible."

"I've seen worse." Natasha shrugged

"Sorry." Banner meekly said

"No, we could- use a little worse."

"Stark, we got him." Capt. Said into the earpiece

" _Banner?_ "

"Just like you said."

" _Then tell him to suit up. I'm bringing the party to you."_

Rose looked up and she heard a buzz and saw Tony fly around the corner, a flying slug on his tail

"I don't see how that's a party," Natasha muttered

"It's not" Rose shrugged, stepping forward a little "Dad's got a slightly insane opinion"

They all heard Tony scoff in their earpiece. Tony drew the creature low and it skimmed the road. Banner turned up and begins to walk away, towards the slug.

"Doctor Banner now might be a really good time for you to get angry." Capt. said

"That's my secret, Cap." Banner chuckled, looking over his shoulder "I'm always angry."

And then as if on cue, Banner transformed into the Hulk and punched the Leviathan, smashing it into the ground.

"Hold On!" Tony blasted a missile at the creature and it exploded.

Rose conjured up a shield around her as the smithereens of the slug flew across. And then the Chituari cried out, screaming and yelling

Rose backed a little, falling in a circle. Hulk roared, Clint notched an arrow, Thor readied Mjolnir, Natasha loaded her gun, Captain America stood ready, Rose whipped out her wand as her eyes glowed an eerie green and Iron Man hovered above them, landing next to the Hulk.

"Send the rest."

Rose looked up and narrowed her eyes at Loki. Soon more slugs came out of the wormhole. The Avengers looked up, watching as more slugs and hundreds of warriors flew through the portal.

"Guys?" Natasha called, looking up at the sky

"Call it, Captain." Tony nodded

"Alright, listen up. Until we can close that portal up there, we're gonna use containment. Barton," Capt. Looked at him "I want you on that roof, eyes on everything. Call out patterns and strays. Stark, you got the perimeter. Anything gets more than three blocks out, you turn it back or you turn it to ash."

"Wanna give me a lift?" Barton asked Tony

"Right. Better clench up, Legolas."

Tony grabbed Barton and flew him up to the top of a building, then flew off.

"Thor! You gotta try and bottleneck that portal, slow 'em down. You got the lightning, light the bastards up."

Thor swung his hammer up and flew off

"Rose, Nat and I, we stay here on the ground, keep the fighting here. And Hulk!" Capt. Looked at the green monster, who snarled at him return

"Smash!"

Hulk grinned, then leaped off, taking out dozens of warriors that are on the sides of the buildings - grabbing them, smashing them, throwing them. Hulk leaped across the air and slapped a flying craft out of the air.

"I've seen kids in park less happy than he is by destroying all those aliens" Rose chuckled

Natasha chuckled at the statement

As the chaos started again, Rose proved that she could hold her fort well on her own. Blasting and cursing off the aliens, Rose dodged when one of them tried attacking her with their sticks. Rose grabbed it and yanked it off the alien, kicking him in the process

"How do you work this thing?" she asked shouting

"Point an..ugh…and shoot" Came Natasha's grunted reply, so Rose followed. Once she had cleared the places around her she broke the stick, tossing it on the ground. She turned around to check when she noticed an alien creeping up on Capt. she shot the alien with a blasting curse, grabbing Capt's attention

"Watch your back, Cap" she chuckled as she noticed Natasha kick off the last Chitauri on that road stretch. She hopped down the car and leaned against it

_"Captain, none of this is gonna mean a damn thing if we don't close that portal,_ " Tony replied

"Our biggest guns couldn't touch it." Captain said

"Wait" Rose spoke up "Well, maybe it's not about guns. The cube's magical."

"And there's only one other magical source" Natasha added, looking at Rose

Rose groaned "I was really hoping you won't say that"

"Want me to come up with you?" Natasha asked

"Well, it never really hurts to have some backup" Rose shrugged

"You girls sure?"

But the women looked at Capt

"Yes," they chorused.

"You wanna get up there, you're gonna need a ride."

"Not really" Rose answered, smiling and extended her hand towards Natasha, who held it in return

"Might be a little uncomfortable" Rose chimed

"Nothing I can't handle" Natasha gulped

"Just remember that I warned," Rose said and within another second, the two disappeared with a pop.

* * *

The two girls appeared on the roof of the Stark Tower and at once, Natasha fell on her knees. She even looked a little green.

"You okay?" Rose crouched next to the spy

"That was…" she panted

"I warned" Rose shrugged, extending her hand. Natasha used it as a support and stood up and flipped her hair back

The two women started walking towards the Tesseract.

"The scepter." Came a groggy voice

The two exchanged a look and saw Dr. Selvig on the floor. They rushed to him and crouched

"Doctor." Rose greeted, quickly checking him up

"Loki's scepter, the energy- the Tesseract can't fight. You can't protect against yourself." Selvig stuttered

"It's not your fault. You didn't know what you were doing." Natasha said

"Well, actually I think I did. I built in a safety to cut the power source."

"Loki's scepter," Rose muttered

"It may be able to close the portal. And I'm looking right at it."

Natasha and Rose turned around to see Loki's scepter lying on the platform below them.

"I'll get it" Rose said and started climbing down to the platform. Before she could keep her final step, someone blasted at her, sending her flying through the broken window. She got up and winced, noticing a broken piece of glass embedded on the bicep

"That's gonna hurt" she muttered and pulled the glass piece out with a wince. She slowly got up, seeing three Chitauris on the floor

"Seriously! You guys are really getting on my nerves" and with that, she blasted each one of them into smithereens, careful to not stain their expensive Persian rug with the alien blood. She walked out and picked up the scepter and started climbing up again

"Here"

Natasha reached and helped Rose up and took the scepter from her. As the two made their way back to the cube, they saw Selvig setting the pieces of equipment up and then he pointed at the device

"Right at the crown!"

Natasha began to push the spear through the barrier surrounding the cube. Seeing her struggle, Rose rushed and held the other side of the scepter, both of them pushing it in together

"We can close it. Can anybody copy? Rose and I can shut the portal down!" Natasha announced into the earpiece

_"Do it!_ " Came the reply from Cap

_"No, wait."_

"Dad?" Rose asked

_"Stark, these things are still coming!"_

_"I got a nuke coming in, it's gonna blow in less than a minute."_

Rose quickly dropped her hold on the scepter and turned around spotting Tony quite far away. What caught her eye was the missile heading towards them.

_"And I know just where to put it."_

Rose, as soon as she heard it, started panicking

"Dad? Dad! Don't do anything stupid! Are you listening? Dad!" she paused "Dad! DAD! DAD?!!"

She grunted loudly and pulling the earpiece, threw it to the ground, shattering it into pieces

"Rose?" she heard Natasha asked

"He hung up on me" Rose muttered as tears started pooling in her eyes

Rose fell on her knees when she saw Tony holding the nuke and heading for the wormhole, her eyes tearing more with every second. And then her phone rang. Black Sabbath. Tony's ringtone.

She absentmindedly answered the phone and kept it on her ear

_"Rosie"_ Tony sighed

"It's fine," she said with a teary smile, as she looked at her hand. A platinum ring with a princess cut diamond in the center which rested on her middle finger. Tony had a similar ring- a platinum band which had a small heart-shaped cutout. It was their promise ring to each other.

"It's going to be fine" Rose took a deep breath and closed her eyes "I love you"

_"I love you too, peanut"_

Rose chuckled. Tony hadn't called her peanut ever since she had hit her growth spurt, i.e. since she was 13.

_"Take care of yourself and Pep"_

"always"

She dared looking up and saw Tony about to enter the wormhole

"Dad?"

_"Hmm?"_

Rose took a deep breath "You'll always be my hero"

And with that static started falling from the other side. Rose lowered her head as a few stray tears fell on her hands.

Natasha stood waiting as Rose heard her mutter "Come on, Stark."

Rose just sat there on the rooftop as more tears threatened to spill. How could this happen? They were supposed to be together forever. Supposed to get on Pepper's nerve together. They were to banter. To create the next world's wonder together. Expand their business further. They were yet to have another vacation, just the two of them and no one else. They were to get in trouble, *cough*Ivan Vanko*cough*, and carve their way out in a regular Stark fashion. They were supposed to do tones of things

What they were not supposed to do was leave the other alone in this world.

And then heard some crackling and Natasha grunting. She dared looking at the tesseract and saw Natasha plunging the scepter into the energy field, into the heart of the device. And with a zap, the portal closed.

Rose closed her eyes and took a deep breath. A chuckled sob escaped from her as Rose dug her nails into her thighs.

"Rose?"

Nat's voice sounded tender

But it only caused her to cry more

"Rose, he made it"

Rose's head jerked upward at once as she saw a limp body of her father falling down from the sky

"Dad!" she yelled about to jump after him when suddenly Hulk caught him mid-air and landed on the road. Without a second thought, Rose apparated to the road.

* * *

The moment Rose appeared on that road was the exact moment Hulk threw Tony off his shoulder onto the ground and Thor and Capt. ran over to him.

Capt. bent down to listen to Tony's heartbeat and stopped when he saw Rose slowly coming towards them. She was walking quite slowly. When she approached Tony, she fell on her knees next to him as Capt. straightened. She gently pulled off his faceplate, seeing his limp face.

"Dad" she whispered "Daddy?"

No response.

Capt America had never felt more helpless than now. Where they all managed to save the civilians, they couldn't save one of their own. A daughter had lost her father. Her family.

Hearing a small tap, he looked up and noticed another drop his Tony's metal armor. Looking for the source, he found tears streaming from Rose's closed eyes as she gently kept a hand over his arc reactor, which was now slowly fading off.

And then out of the blue, a strong shockwave erupted knocking everyone off their feet. Thor was thrown off and hit a building behind him, Steve fell on his back, closing his eyes with his forearm and shield. Even Hulk stumbled a bit but then he snarled.

When Steve opened his eyes and removed his arm his jaw almost hit the floor.

Rose was giving off a thin black aura around her and she seemed to be glowing, moreso by every minute. It didn't take more than a minute for Steve to realize that Rose had been the source to that shockwave, voluntarily or not, he didn't know.

Her sobs were still very much clear and tears streamed down her cheeks. He guessed that she didn't know at all what she was doing. Thor reappeared next to Steve, helping him up as they both looked at the young girl n the ground

"Hel" Thor whispered in what sounded amazed

And then just as suddenly, Hulk roared loudly and Tony's eyes snapped open with a loud gasp, looking around.

"What the hell?"

Rose froze. Visibly the aura around her vanished as she slowly raised her head to see the arc reactor glowing back and then at Tony's face

She reached and pressed a button on Tony's neck, taking off his helmet. and then

"What were you thinking?!" she screamed "Are you out of your bloody mind? Flying into a damned wormhole with a bloody nuke! Are you that big of a an idiot?!" Rose finished with her breaths hard and fast

All four men were looking at her with amazement and surprise.

"Um…Sorry?" it sounded more like a question

"You better be" she weakly chuckled before reaching and grasping him into a tight hug, one he equally responded with.

Tony reached and kissed Rose's head

"Nobody kissed me, right?" Tony asked as they all chuckled

"We won." Capt. answered with a chuckle

"Alright, Hey. Alright." Tony slightly panted "Good job, guys. Let's just not come in tomorrow. Let's just take a day. You ever tried shawarma? There's a shawarma joint about two blocks from here. I don't know what it is, but Rose and I wanna try it."

Rose chuckled and pulled off, wiping her tears

"Shawarma it is, then"

"We're not finished yet," Thor stated

"And then shawarma after?" Tony asked

* * *

_Stark Tower, Penthouse_

Loki crawled over to a stair and turned to see the Avengers surrounding him. Hawkeye had an arrow aimed at his face. Natasha was holding his scepter. Hulk growled. Tony's hand was outstretched towards him. Rose looked at him with a hard scowl on her face, her eyes emitting a low glow

"If it's all the same to you, I'll have that drink now."


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "I'm a screw up"  
> "....agreed"  
> -Rose and her inner conscious

A week later,

Rose sat cross-legged on the couch, peering over some digital copies of the books, glasses on her nose.

Two days after the battle, they all had sent off Loki and Tesseract with Thor to Asgard and things had gone back to normal a little.

Perispherically she saw Pepper enter the room, the penthouse floor, with three mugs in her hands. She first casually walked to Tony, who was also looking over screens and passed him one of the mugs before leaning and kissing his cheek. Then she pulled and walked to Rose, handing one mug to her, keeping the last one for herself.

Rose shot her a relieved smile, accepting the mug and sipped in

"Hot chocolate. Just what I needed" she smiled and gave Pepper a love-sick look "Have I ever said I love you so so much"

"Yeah, a couple of times here and there" Pepper chuckled before she left Rose's side

Rose slowly drank while she looked over the schematics of the tower's security. As of before, the responsibility of the tower's security was her responsibility while Tony managed other things.

She was almost done when she realized that her hot chocolate had finished off. With a very audible groan, she got up but paused seeing Tony and Pepper busy in a total makeout session through the transparent screens. How the hell had she missed that before? And really? With a young adult in the room?

Provided the young adult wasn't exactly the virgin herself but that didn't mean any offspring wanted to see its parent in a heated session of love with someone.

With a huge smirk, she let out a loud whistle. As expected Tony and Pepper paused their make-out session and looked at her, faces heavily flushed and embarrassed

"Next time you wanna try that, make sure I'm not in the near vicinity" she complained and then kept the mug back on the table "I'm going for a walk. Ring me up if you need anything" With that she turned and left the floor.

Quickly changing into something out of her PJs- an AC/DC crop top, high waisted blue jeans and some block heeled black ankle boots. She finger-brushed her rose gold tresses before leaving the tower.

She just roamed aimlessly across the still recovering Manhattan. A few temporary shelters were made for those who had their homes completely destroyed. The Avengers were also providing a helping hand. Rose had teamed up with MACUSA and dealt with behind-the-curtain issues as much as she could. Tony had formed a whole new department-Stark Relief Fund, dedicated to the people affected by the Alien Invasion. 

She was thankful that she had very earlier charmed some minor trinkets with spells like notice-me-not and muggle-repelling charms to avoid crowds. So no one came to her asking for photos or autographs.

She pulled out a pair of earphones, plugged them to her phones as she walked.

She just simply walked over, entering a park. Kids were playing, parents chatting and having fun. She could even see a teen couple making out somewhere under a tree. A small chuckle escaped her lips when she realized that she hadn't had sex in while now. And now that they had saved the planet from some hostile alien army, she felt like she deserved to get laid.

Rose tutted and turned to leave when something caught her eye. Rather, someone.

She quietly made her way to the person and stood behind him

"It's usually better than this"

The person in question jumped, startled, and turned to look at her. She smirked and chuckled at him

"Hi there, Captain"

"Rose" he nodded "What are you doing here?"

"Just having a walk" Rose shrugged as she came around to sit next to him on the bench.

Captain nodded "I thought you'd be helping Stark with the tower"

Rose looked at him and raised her brow elegantly

"Would it really hurt you to call him Tony?" she asked "In case you forgot, I'm Stark too"

"Then maybe you should start addressing me as Steve. It wouldn't kill you"

Rose looked at him and noticed the shimmer of amusement in his blue eyes. She chuckled and lightly laughed

"What?" Steve smiled. He had to admit that her laugh was very contagious.

"Very less people are able to sass me, Steve" she chuckled and spent another minute composing herself "So, what are you doing here? I thought you were heading for Brooklyn"

"Brooklyn is not like what it used to be"

"Hmm" Rose nodded "Modernisation" she shrugged "Trust me, I know what it feels like"

Steve gave her a look "didn't you grow up in this…." He looked around

"era?" Rose asked then shrugged "It's different for me. Where I learned magic, tech doesn't exist there. So, I know how it is to you" she looked at him "I can show you around"

Steve seemed to contemplate for a moment before he nodded

"Let's go, then"

She and Steve walked around Manhattan, even helping people a couple of times. But the whole time, their small tour was repeatedly interrupted by fangirls and fanboys alike who wanted photos and autographs with Capt. America. And every time Rose would dissolve in the background until the crowd dispersed and they resumed their tour.

"How's adjusting going so far?" Rose asked

"I'm handling" Steve shrugged "things have changed so much though." And he eyed a girl who was walking with her boyfriend wearing very fewer clothes

"If you mean clothing, then yeah" Rose laughed "Women have been way more into equal rights these days"

Steve shot her a questioned look

"Equal pay, equal work respect, equal opportunities, and all that" Rose brushed off the topic

"and I see you are not an exception" Steve muttered to himself but Rose heard it anyway, earning a chuckle from her

"What?" he asked

"Of course I'm not an exception" she answered and Steve realized that he had spoken it loud, making him flush "Besides, it was dad's." she pointed at her crop top "I just stole it and remodeled it a little"

Steve nodded then went silent

"Thank God!" Rose loudly exclaimed, resulting in Steve to look at her awkwardly

"What's wrong?"

"that thing survived!" she almost squeaked, pointing at a shop. The naming of the shop read –Sugar Hill Creamery **(It actually exists!)**

"Sugar hill creamery?" Steve looked at it puzzled

"the only best and the most amazing ice cream shop in the whole of NYC. You haven't had a taste of NYC until you've had something from there. Come on. My treat" she quickly held Steve's hand and literally dragged him all the way to the shop.

The two entered and found the place with few people. And as soon as they noticed Steve, they swarmed to him. Rose easily faded out and walked to the counter

"Hi" she smiled "I'd like to place an order"

"Yes mam?" the worker asked

"I'd like......a Sweet Socialism and a Chairman of the Board"

The man typed it on the screen "Cash or card, mam?"

"Card" Rose fished out her card and handed it to the man. But once he took it and checked it out, his eyes widened to an inhuman extent.

"You..you..you are…"

"Shhhh" Rose pressed a finger to her lips with a smirk, then pointed at the crowd around Steve "Trying to avoid that"

The man nodded, as she swiped the card and turned the machine towards her to enter the pin

"Can I have a photo with you?" he asked giddily

"sure" she smiled, returning the machine to him. The man took out his phone and turned around.

Once the photo was clicked, Rose was handed her orders and she turned around just as the last pair of girls left Steve alone.

She chuckled, walking to him

"Looks like you got your own fan group"

"I guess" he sheepishly told her

"Here" Rose extended his ice cream towards him "this is called Sweet Socialism"

Steve shot her a look, but she shrugged with a smirk "They also have one named Unfinished Business by the way"

Steve chuckled and took it "What's yours called?"

"Chairman of Board" Rose answered, as she led the two of them back onto the street.

"How come they don't recognize you?" Steve asked

Rose smiled "there are simple spells called notice-me-not" she faced him and winked as her eyes glowed green for a brief second before they flickered back to normal.

They quietly ate their ice cream when Rose noticed Steve sneaking glances at her. He looked uneasy.

"Shoot," she said

"What?"

"You want to ask something. Ask it"

Steve looked at her in surprise and question

"come on Cap. I do not have a saint's patience"

Steve softly sighed

"I was just wondering a few things. You never mentioned your mother"

Steve could have sworn Rose froze for a moment but then quickly came back to her composture. Ever since Loki had mentioned her mother, she had really gotten shut off about it. He had also lost his mother and he knew how it felt but the way she and Tony had reacted when they realized who Loki was talking about, it intrigued him. As if there was something about her mother that neither of the father-daughter wanted people to know about

"I'm sorry" he suddenly said, knowing he had offended her "I didn't mean to ask that. I wa-"

"drop it Steve" Rose muttered, tossing her ice cream in the dustbin "I know you didn't mean to offend. It's just…" she took a deep breath "It's fine"

Steve sighed softly. They were having such a good time and then he had to go and ruin all of it.

"I expected everyone on the board to see my interaction with Loki" she softly said

Steve looked at her as he recalled the conversation.

"You also said he wasn't above telling lies. I thought he was lying the whole time"

"not the whole time, no" Rose humorlessly chuckled. Steve opened his mouth to apologize again but was interrupted by a ringing phone. With brows furrowing, Rose pulled out her phone and answered

"Hey, Pepper........Shit!"

Steve looked at her and she kinda looked embarrassed. And who was Pepper?

"I know I forgot" she continued with a chuckle "Yeah that was before you and dad literally kicked me out of the tower" she silently laughed "No. no, don't send the car. I'll be at the office in…" she looked at her watch "10. Yeah, I should be there in 10." She paused and nodded once "Cool. And Pep, please get me something to wear. I'm not attending an R&D meeting dressed in crop top and denim looking like I just came out of an 80's rave party." She nodded again, this time with a smile "Great. I'll see you at the office. Bye. And Pep, you are a lifesaver. What did I ever do to get a friend like you?" she softly laughed "and dad. Him too. I'll see ya" and she hung up, pocketing her phone and then she turned to Steve

"Sorry, I gotta bail. I have a very important meeting to attend and I totally forgot about it. I should get going"

"Okay, no problem" Steve nodded. Rose shot him a soft smile and quickly turned around, running towards the tower.

Steve looked at her, took a huge breath, before tossing his own ice cream into a nearby dustbin with a grunt. He couldn't understand why he had to go and ruin their nice time together by asking something so personal.

Sure he hadn't expected on meeting her at the park, or going around with her or having ice cream with her. But it was for once after the whole battle, that he actually felt content.

Steve took a deep breath as he grudgingly accepted that he was screwed. He was screwed because he had started forming something akin to friendship with Rose Stark, the billionaire CEO of Stark Industries only for him to ruin it.

* * *

For the next whole week, Steve visited the park almost all the time. But Rose never came back. And Steve knew he had given her enough reason not to.

And after a whole week, he stopped going at all. If she wasn't interested in meeting him, then there wasn't any point. Besides, Fury's offer to him was still standing. So he joined back SHIELD at their DC base as an agent and left New York at all. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this story's over. The sequel is up. Comment, kudos, subscribe are gladly welcomed🤗🤗


End file.
